Gaara Sakura: Kazekage Rescue Arc
by LoveAnime5891
Summary: A sequel to the Gaara Sakura fanfiction Part 1 follows after two and a half years of hard work and training where Sakura and Naruto ventured off once again to find Sasuke. They soon discovered an organization, known as the Akatsuki, planning to collect all of the remaining tailed beasts. One of their targets is Gaara, who then eventually gets kidnapped, much to the others' dismay.
1. Two Years Later

**Hey guys! I'm back! Sorry for keeping you waiting. I had to deal with a lot of personal stuff lately, regarding with my friends, school, etc. Yeah, you know how life works. But now that I'm back on this sequel, I'll be working on other GaaSaku** **stories and a few of them are not going to be based on manga. I hope you enjoy reading this with the twists that I've put onto it.**

 **So anyways, please enjoy reading and reviewing! Love y'all! :)**

* * *

The village has been reciprocating well enough to provide extra care for the civilians and animals around the environment. Waking up every morning to either get back to work or training is always a great blessing every single day to live up to their success and hard work. But not only for the pink-haired kunoichi, she has a vision that she wants for everyone to look forward into. That is joy, peace and mostly, love.

There are some moments where she would think of one person who has always been in her mind lately that can make her feel alive or somehow, dead and broken inside. In any way, she didn't want to talk about it just yet. She just can't. After all, the one that she loves the most can truly be the deepest cut in her heart that almost haunted her every time she sees the things around that reminded her of him.

Stepping back into the hometown was definitely a refreshing memory for the newly well-grown boy.

Two and a half years had passed since the incidents that occurred in the leaf and sand villages, Naruto and Jiraiya made a return back to their hometown after the hard work of their training. They glanced around to see that everything hasn't changed one bit, but the blonde-haired ninja was full of homesickness with excitement and nostalgia. Without a doubt, he was glad to be back. He sees the monument face of the 5th hokage that has been carved out, much to his amusement.

"You've grown a lot, haven't you Naruto?" A voice spoke out, which made him turn around to see who it was.

"Kakashi-sensei!" The blonde-haired ninja jumped on the roof and remembered to give him a present. "This is the latest in the 'Make-Out Tactics' after a few decades. It's really boring. But you'll still like it, I think!"

Jiraiya, on the other hand, squinted his eyes with his arms crossed and pouted annoyingly in thought. _"Idiot... A kid like you wouldn't understand the beauty of that book. It's still an unreleased rare item too..."_

A couple of minutes later, he and Kakashi began to discuss the news, regarding to the mysterious group of shinobi.

"As promised, I'll leave Naruto back into your care. I fear the Akatsuki has been growing impatient. They may create an attempt on Naruto soon. I'm going to head around and gather as much information as I can," the white-haired man explained it sternly, just when the blonde-haired ninja stopped in a halt, seeing a familiar green-eyed kunoichi, who appears to be well-grown and beautiful.

"Sa-Sakura?" The blonde-haired ninja stammered a little in awe of her appearance.

"Eh? Naruto?!" The pink-haired kunoichi takes a surprising look at him and asks shyly. "How do I look? Do I... look more like a woman now?"

"Yeah..." he nodded, grinning cheekily as his cheeks tinged pink.

"You've... you've gotten taller than me?!" Sakura noted and genuinely smiled at him proudly. _"Hmm... You've become really strong since I last saw you."_

"Bro Naruto!" A voice called out eagerly, making everyone look at the person who used a Sexy Jutsu till it disappears in a puff of smoke. "How was that?! A real drool of a jutsu, wasn't it?"

The blonde-haired ninja chuckled faintly and said. "Konohamaru, I'm sorry but I'm not a kid anymore. From now on, you shouldn't use that jutsu either..."

 _"So... Naruto hasn't just matured in appearance. This makes me feel a little sad. You really have become amazing, Naruto. I'm sure you've come back with a lot of great new jutsu too, right...?"_ Sakura gazed at him surprisingly with interest in thought. Her cheeks turned a little bright pink because she might even consider him more than what she sees as a friend.

Naruto then burst out and pumping out his fist vehemently, proclaiming. "Such a jutsu is now mediocre, Konohamaru! Behold! The new perverted ninjutsu I've been developing! Here we go!"

The pink-haired kunoichi chuckled lightly as she trailed off of her words. "Aha, new ninjutsu you say, a new perv..." Then, she suddenly punched him in the face, yelling in annoyance. "You idiot!" She watches him stumbled off on the ground and began to scold him irritably as she kept shaking him. "I was wrong. You haven't changed one bit! I haven't seen you for two years and within two minutes, you jump straight into that! Idiot! What about that wonderful feeling of respect I had for you just now?! Ahh! As if I could feel sad that I wasn't grown up like you!"

"Hey, hey, Sakura. Calm down... Konohamaru here's terrified," Kakashi said gently, gesturing her with calmness.

"Jiraiya. Naruto has grown more and more like you in the past two years, hasn't he?" Tsunade murmured with a dull tone.

 _"That beauty and strength... It would seem as though you've raised another Tsunade, no?"_ Jiraiya grimaced in thought at that.

"The nostalgia ends here though. Kakashi," Tsunade ordered.

The copy-haired ninja slammed his book closed with his one hand and informs Sakura and Naruto as usual. "Well it has been a while, hasn't it? From now on, the two of you will come with me on team-related missions. It's different than before. It's no longer teacher and pupil. Starting today, we're equal leaf shinobis." He held the two familiar small bells in front of them and continued on. "First, I'm a bit curious as to how you've developed. The rules are the same as when I first met you two. If you don't come at me with the intent to kill, you will never succeed in getting the bells!"

Later on, Kakashi and the others arrived at one of the training grounds. He explains the simple rules as before by getting the bells from him until sunrise tomorrow. Naruto and Sakura looked around, contemplating and embracing on how much they've missed the place. The same place that they've first trained with Sasuke. Though, the thought of him made them depressed as they both sulked up to themselves.

"Anyways, let's move on. Shall we? Besides, this time for some reason, I get the feeling I should take it a little seriously," Kakashi slammed the book with one hand as he activated his sharingan in his left eye.

Naruto then starts throwing shurikens directly towards his sensei and summons his Shadows Clone quickly for movement. However, he got held up behind his head yet he was able to catch him on the back.

 _"His use of the clones and his timing is very clever," Kakashi said impressively in thought._ "Well, your haste hasn't changed."

"Hehe," Naruto smirked, much to Kakashi's amusement.

"Alright, let's begin!" The copy-haired ninja disappeared in a puff of smoke, whereas the pink-haired kunoichi was moving her eyes carefully to find his hiding spot.

 _"If he's not anywhere, he's below!" Sakura exclaimed out loud as she smashed the ground with full of force of her fist and smiled._ "Found you!"

 _Naruto chuckled at how mesmerizing she is and thought. "Heh. I should stop playing around in front of her. She could kill me."_

 _"She builds up the maximum amount of chakra in their fist, then release it in an instant without precise chakra control. She couldn't do that it's a real feat. Medical ninjutsu plus amazing strength. No, that's not at all. Sakura was originally a genjutsu type. She may become an even better ninja than the fifth," Kakashi contemplated in mind and said_. "Alright, this time should I also do something on my end."

Later that night, Naruto and Sakura hid behind a huge tree and were still figuring out their sensei's weakness. Once they solved the puzzle, they were heading straight to attack him right on the spot.

"Now, Naruto!" Sakura exclaimed.

"Alright! Kakashi-sensei, the last joke in Make-Out Tactics that happened to the main character-" Naruto spitted out, much to Kakashi's shock.

When their sensei covered up his ears with his hands, including his sharingan eye, they quickly snatched the bells out of his pockets. They were satisfied that the passed the test, which Kakashi was very amazed by their individual growth and potential. He knew that they are capable to overcome this kind of obstacle together. Even without Sasuke. As much as he misses them as cute newbies, it was time to accept the change that they have in themselves.

Once they head back into the village, Naruto suggested for them to eat at the Ichiraku Ramen place.

 _"Yeah. I'm a bit hungry after training from yesterday too..." Sakura said thoughtfully._

"Well, I have to create and submit a list of formations of the new teams. So see you later," Kakashi noted as he disappeared in a puff of smoke out of their sight.

 _"Ah! He ran away!" Naruto groaned in annoyance._

 _"Hmm. He's just thinking about reading the book probably," the pink-haired giggled._

"Hehe... So the two of us are on our own now, so is it a da-" the blonde-haired ninja didn't get to finish his sentence when Sakura prefers him to treat them.

She glanced over the two familiar shinobi walking by and decided to wave at them, exclaiming. "Shikamaru! Temari! Who do you think this is?!" She pointed a finger for them to recognize her best friend and teammate.

"Hey! If it isn't Naruto!" Shikamaru greeted in surprise.

"Sup!" The blonde-haired ninja reciprocated.

"Did you just come home then?" Shikamaru asked.

"No, I came back yesterday," Naruto puts his hands behind his head.

"Haha. So has any of your idiocy left you? And have you changed well?" Shikamaru interrogated in amusement.

"No. He hasn't changed at all," Sakura whispered with a disapproval gesture.

"Ah, really?" Shikamaru chuckled.

"So... Are you two on a date too?" The blonde-haired ninja grinned secretively in a smug.

"That's not it," Shikamaru answered calmly.

"You're joking. Why would I go out with such a complex guy like him? Anyway, there's a chunin exam soon. I'm just going back and forth between the sand and the leaf for meetings," Temari informed.

"And it's troublesome, but I've become an examiner. So I was told to go and see off the messengers from the hidden sand," Shikamaru explained.

"A chunin exam? That brings back memories..." Naruto murmured sincerely.

"Yeah. It does," Sakura gazed off at that thought.

"Hey, what are you planning?" Shikamaru asked.

"What do you mean?" Naruto was puzzled.

"The only one from our class who hasn't become a chunin is you," Shikamaru stated in conclusion.

"Ehh?!" Naruto's eyes widened in bewilderment.

"Plus, Neji from the class above us, Kankuro, Temari are already a jounin," he added, which made the blonde-haired ninja even more shock.

"Hey... What about Gaara?" Naruto mentioned and waited for them to respond to his question.

Sakura smiled genuinely as she looked up towards the sky, knowing that her best friend is busy taking care of things back in his hometown. She knew that he would accomplish something bigger and even getting himself this far to reach for one of his dreams. She will always believe in her friends, no matter what and for them to strive for the great things that is about to come.

 _ **Meanwhile in the hidden sand village...**_

"Lord Kazekage, the meeting is starting soon," one of the advisers said.

"Ok," said the young and grown red-haired ninja softly.

A few minutes later, Gaara and the rest of the councilors were discussing a few issues, regards to the chunin exams.

"In the past few years, our village's power has stabilized and has maintained good relations with all of our allies. Plus, we have good results from the curriculum of the training program we bought in from our new allies of the hidden leaf," one of the councilors noted.

"There's a chunin exam soon. I'm looking forward to the results of that," the elderly man mentioned with interest.

"Well... this is close to it, there's been a bad rumor..." the young man said anxiously.

"What is it?" Baki asked.

"This information's from Jiraiya of the legendary Sanins. Have you heard of an organization known as the Akatsuki?" One of the Jounin pointed out.

"Yes. But anyway, we will continue further on with that matter eventually. This is the end of our meeting," Baki announced.

Outside the hidden sand village, two mysterious black-red clouded cloak figures stood in the midst of the desert. They seem to be waiting to attack the guards on the front and nevertheless, they are currently approaching them without hesitation.

"So, the ones Orochimaru manipulated are ahead. Yeah?"

"It seems for some reason, he leaked our information and turned into a traitor..."

"We don't have a choice. I don't know what he's like after using that jutsu either."

"Is it alright just with that bag?"

"Our opponent uses the 'power of human sacrifice.'"

"Well, my jutsus are all artistic, so I came up with my favorite number 18. Yeah, because our opponent is the 'One Tail,'" said the tall black figure with a hat on and reveals a mouthful creature in front of his palm.

On the contrary, several guards saw the two enemies walking towards them in shock. They decided to move quickly to stop them from entering their village. A few seconds later, one was standing in his spot and the rest were murdered instantly on the ground. He bowed down before his master after doing what he was told to do.

"Well done. You remembered me?"

"Yes, sir! Of course, it's Master Sasori," said the jounin with a high respect.

"Alright. If you'd forgotten, I might have had to use my jutsu. Since your memories have returned, you are my faithful servant," he murmured softly.

"Alright then. Here we go!" The man with a mouthful-creature began to chew a white clay and slurped out a small bird figure as it flies off onto the ground. He made a few hand signs to enlarge it for him to step onto him and heading off towards the sky to attack the hidden sand village.

Without a question, there is no other way for them to delay their plan. They only have one motive to accomplish. Only one thing that they are looking for and their ultimate objective is... Gaara.

* * *

 _TO BE CONTINUED..._


	2. The 5th Kazekage

**I'll be posting new chapters every Saturday as soon as I can. If you have any questions, please message me and I'll answer right away or you can comment down below of this chapter.**

 **Anyways, please read & review! :)**

* * *

As soon as Deidara flutters in the air around the sand village, he began to search for some victims that he could possibly attack while traveling across the sky on the white bird, using his mini eye-scope. From there, he found three guards in different areas and decides to pull out three spider clay objects, then slowly drops them below. The creatures were making their ways to sneak attack the guards behind until they climbed near their arms and faces.

"What the? What the hell is this weird thing?!" One of the guards exclaimed in shock.

"'Weird thing?' Hm. You've got no taste. No wonder stupid people can't comprehend art," Deidara chuckled with a half grin, then made a hand sign to detonate. "Art is a bang."

Suddenly, all the three spiders exploded in which resulted the deaths of the three guards in just a few seconds. Deidara landed on top of the balcony with a smirk and noticed someone was standing in front of him.

"Ah... Infiltration successful," he noted in delight.

"That's as far as you go..." said the young Kazekage sternly with his eyes narrowed at him.

Deidara gave him a malicious smile and looked at the sand coming towards his way at the right corner of his eye. He dodged the attack as Gaara attempts to grasp onto him using one of his jutsus. Once he stepped on the white bird and flew away, the red-haired ninja was following along to stop him from destroying his village.

 _"Ho... this jinchuriki is useful, isn't it?" Deidara thought impressively in mind ._ "However, you knew it was me."

"In this desert, no bird like that exists," Gaara pointed out as he was riding on the sand. Both of them were currently facing each other ready to fight. "Heh... Seems like my sneaking in was a failure. Thanks to that, I don't need to search for you," Deidara sighed tiredly.

The red-haired Kazekage layed his hands out to levitate the sand up from the bottom of the ground, whereas Deidara opened his palm to reveal a few bomb clays.

"As one would expect, you have the geographical advantage. It's risky, Yeah."

"The sand turned into one of the One-Tailed beast's claws that rapidly was chasing him. He then was rummaging through his pockets to find mini bombs to throw towards Gaara, who quickly shielded himself from the explosions. After the grey smokes have been cleared, Deidara's eyes widened in surprise, seeing the sand sphere hold firmly.

 _"Heh. It's like the eggshell protecting the inner contents. But to be able to guard against all that is... It's totally impressive. Yeah..." He smirked thoughtfully at that. He realized that he was being trapped fully and making his escape as soon as possible by blowing up a hole with another bomb._

As he got out of the sphere, he noticed that his arm gripped by the sand. Gaara uses his coffin jutsu to disintegrate it into pieces and blood was splattered out, whilst the Akatsuki continues to fall down and pulled out his right arm to summon a white bird to catch him.

 _"You're good. Oh my. I've only got a little bit of clay left. Just enough for one more attack. The sand that he used to crush my hand and the sand that he protects with is... Different from the normal desert sand that he brings up in terms of speed and power. So that means that he's always walking around with a set amount of sand in his ground. In other words, only that sand is specially made from a ton of old chakra all gathered up. And so, that's where we get that 'Ultimate defense' of sand. As well as sand to attack in an instant. In that case, that hole in the sand right there is the result of him crushing my hand. All I have left of my explosives is #18 and the homing bird," Deidara noted himself in mind and shows his weapon gleefully in front of him._

On the other hand, Kankuro and the rest of the jounins were rushing out to go and help the Kazekage immediately. They prepared themselves to use the strategies to set up a barrier in order to prevent the bombs from exploding the village.

"From looking at that shape, we can assume that Gaara's opponent is probably a member of the Akatsuki clan. It's just as I thought," Kankuro murmured sternly with his eyes narrowed towards his younger brother in concern.

"Hurry! Prepare for battle!" Baki demanded the rest of the team as they followed his order. "Kankuro..."

"What is it?" He asked.

"Consider the idea of Gaara going crazy again in your head, as well as the scenario when Shukaku comes out too," Baki said without a doubt.

"That... won't happen. Gaara won't harm the people of this village," Kankuro pointed out sincerely and remembers the time when he was listening to his younger brother speak about the important things in his life.

 _FLASHBACK:_

 _"I don't want to have to say this... But the people think of you only as a 'frightening weapon.' To separate from us and to just go into their gang out of the blue like this. It'll be hard, man. The superiors don't think very much of you anyway... When it comes to you, the majority of the village is embraced with fear," Kankuro explained politely, not trying to anger him._

 _"I know... However, just by waiting, I get attacked by an ever greater anguish. All one can do is create his own path through hard work. Without being a loner and taking the easy route. So someday, I'll maybe be like..." Gaara trailed off of his words as he looks back on the days he spent time with his friends, bringing back Sasuke. He couldn't help but express the way he felt towards the certain people that he cares about. "So that's why I, as one of the sand's shinobi, aim to become the Kazekage. To bond with and live for this village. Through hard work, I want to be respected by everyone. I got that after seeing Naruto Uzumaki and of course... Sakura Haruno. But up until now, bonds with others have been nothing but an annoyance to the point I would want to kill. But for them to go so far as to say, 'what's the deal with bonds?' Now, there's something that I understand a little better. Hate, sadness and even happiness... To be able to share it with another person..." Gaara reminisces the past of him and Sakura's childhood and meeting Naruto later on was such a blessing in his life and for him to be a part of it. "I learned that it's not too late to change the path you are in. The pain that they both taught me is how I had finally been able to see the light again and that there is a hope for me. Not only that, but I'm still learning how to love... I want to be needed, not as a frightening weapon anymore. But as the sand's Kazekage." He concluded as he looked at the left corner of his eye with a genuine smile._

 _Kankuro did the same thing and he felt so proud that his younger brother came this far without having the urge to abandon his own siblings, village, and his friends. Because of that, he knew that Sakura and Naruto would never give up on Gaara, no matter what. It was never easy for them to befriend someone who has a dark, tragic past. Although, they understand the importance of empathy when it comes to these kinds of situations where the person has personal issues with themselves and do not know how to cope up very well. They helped Gaara get back to where he was supposed to be in his life and he couldn't be more thankful enough for them to help him grow out of the shell, full of vulnerability and sorrow._

 _END OF FLASHBACK_

 _ **Back in the present time...**_

"That's it. I'm going to destroy this town, yeah," Deidara declared and thought. _"However, he was stronger than I thought. It's just like Sasori said. I was unprepared."_ Then he spoke out to the red-haired Kazekage loudly in annoyance. "To be stopped from below would put me in such a bad mood. That and I'm tired of your ridiculous, expressionless face." In just a few moments, he carefully dropped the exploding lay doll from the mouthful creature in his palm, which has the highest level of chakra put into it. The exploding strength is his greatest artistic achievement from all the things he can make.

On the contrary, Gaara's eyes widened in shock and panic when he watches the bomb clay fly down towards the ground, full of citizens, whereas the rest of the jounins were trying to find a way to diminish the attack.

"What the hell is that?!" One of them yelled out.

"This is bad! Spread out!" Baki said urgently.

"Heh. You're too late!" Deidara muttered softly in malice.

All of a sudden, the bomb clay began to explode and erupted. Luckily, it did not affect the entire village since Gaara had placed a sand protection barrier above them, which ran a lot of his chakra to go out.

"This is... Lord Kazekage's sand!" One of the elders gasped in surprise.

"Wow! To be able to create a huge shield like that!" One of the jounins was amazed by his power.

"Gaara..." Kankuro was impressed and couldn't say anything at the moment.

The red-haired Kazekage was huffing heavily by the massive amount of energy he had given out. He still managed to keep up with all of his power at hand and never even once flinched by the explosions that his enemy pulled.

"Okay, in shooting range... Yeah..." Deidara raised up his hand to signal the position of his attack.

Gaara sees the flying bomb clay of bird near his left side. The bomb was released and once again exploded, resulting the damage that was caused.

"As you'd expect, that specially made sand's guard sure is fast. But just as I thought," Deidara said nonchalantly with a wicked smile. He tried it again and this time, it started to rumble inside of Gaara's sand sphere in the process. After the red-haired Kazekage smashed his hand, Deidara took the chance and ate some of his sand and put it back as one of his exploding clay. He planned it, so that it would go that way. _"If I blew up something that close to you, you would have to use that same sand from the gourd that you used to smash my hand so quickly. Also, that was my last attack too. So for it to be in precisely the right spot for me to detonate it, I had to create that move. That's the reason I used my 'specialty #18' on the village. Yeah. Heh, a typical Kazekage, to use his last bit of strength to protect the village. It would have been so much easier to just let it fall on them."_

Once the sand sphere was beginning to dissolve down into pieces, Gaara's current state is now in critical condition. His head was bent down and suddenly remembers the face of his pink-haired best friend, smiling at him cheerily.

 _"Sakura... I... I'm sorry..." He said softly in mind._

"Gaara!?" Kankuro cried out above as he watches his younger brother fall down from the sky until Deidara catches him, using the white bird's huge claw that wrapped around his body.

"Hm. Not killing him was a bit harder than I imagined. But my job here is done. 'Mission complete,'" The akatsuki member said merrily and flies off away from the village.

 _"They want to take him alive?!" Baki questioned in shock and anger._

"Their objective was Gaara?! Those bastards!" Kankuro suddenly runs off to go and chase after Deidara.

"Kankuro! They were at a high enough level to defeat Gaara! You won't be able to do anything by yourself!" Baki warned firmly.

"So you just plan to abandon Gaara?!" He yelled behind him as he continue to run off.

"Don't say something like that! Fine! Just follow them. Don't take any action! If we can even get a hold of their base, we can from a group to attack!" Baki explained out loud for him to hear.

"Okay! If I can!" Kankuro agreed.

 _"Tch... Kankuro..." Baki was saddened and decides to inform the others about the incident._

 _ **Meanwhile back in the hidden leaf village, inside the Yamanaka flower shop...**_

A vase full of daisies flowers drops onto the floor that scattered around by a pink-haired kunoichi, who felt a terrible sensation feeling inside her stomach and her wrist began to squeeze tightly by the sand bracelet. She started to wince in pain as she holds onto her wrist and drops onto her knees uncontrollably.

Ino gasped in shock when she came beside her in concern. "Oh! Sakura... Are you okay? What is it?

"Yeah... It's just something doesn't feel right at all," the pink-haired kunoichi murmured quietly.

"What do you mean?" Ino asked in puzzlement.

"Well, every time I have this bracelet on, it would usually tells me what is happening," Sakura stated and just thought as if nothing happened. "No... It must've been a false alarm. He can't be hurt or anything-"

"Sakura, I don't think you should take this lightly. It's something that you shouldn't ignore. Just saying because right now, your wrist is starting to bleed," Ino pointed out seriously when she gazed over at her wrist.

The pink-haired kunoichi looked down and examined it carefully. She began to heal her wrist using her other hand and for a few minutes, the wound is patched up. "Yeah... You're right. I'm going to ask Kakashi-sensei for this."

"You can go right away. Don't worry, I'll clean the mess here, okay? And besides, it's important for you to know," Ino informed.

"Alright," Sakura nodded in agreement. As soon as she left the Yamanaka flower shop, she decided to head for a run while holding onto her wrist before it starts to bleed again. For that moment in time, she is not going to be pleased about the news that she will eventually find out from Lady Tsunade and the other jounins. She did not want to accept the fact that her sand bracelet says otherwise... She wants to deny that nothing bad had happened to her best friend, Gaara.

Unfortunately, it already occurred in place.

* * *

 _TO BE CONTINUED..._


	3. Akatsuki's Plan

**Hey, guys! Just want to let you know that I will be posting new artworks of GaaSaku** **sometime in the future.**

 **Anyways, please read & review! :)**

* * *

Back in the hidden sand village, Baki bursts in through the doors of the Kazekage tower building to inform others. "Send out a pursuit team to follow Kankuro immediately! And send an urgent message to the hidden leaf about the situation! This is an emergency!"

"Roger!" The jounins exclaimed in unison.

 _"I have a bad feeling about this... Something. Something is beginning," Baki said nervously in mind while his face was covered in a bit of sweats._

Outside of the village near the main entrance was Deidara telling his other companion, Sasori, about how strong Gaara really is when he fought him. Although, they did not know that Kankuro was following them until he saw several jounins brutally murdered relentlessly by one of the traitors. He got infuriated by this after seeing their bloody, dead corpses on both sides of the area. He clenched his fists tightly and dashed forwardly towards the enemies who were walking away. He yelled at them. "WAIT!"

They stopped in a halt calmly and turned around to face him.

"Return Gaara to me!" Kankuro declared strongly.

"Deidara... Go on ahead," Sasori said briefly and turns over to look at an angry Kankuro, who pulls out the three heavy scrolls from his back.

He swooped them over the front, which summons three different puppets.

"A puppet jutsu?" Sasori questioned in surprise.

"Right. I'll head on, yeah..." Deidara agreed.

"Like I'll let you go!" Kankuro cried out as he moved the puppets with his fingertips and starts congregating them to attack his opponent.

However, one of his puppets was caught by Sasori's grasp of the tail and said in a deep tone of his animatronic voice. "Since I don't like waiting or making people wait, I'll end this quickly."

For the time being, Kakashi and his two students were gathered on the sidewalk, whereas other citizens are working diligently with their lives as usual.

"You're late!" Naruto said annoyingly at his sensei.

"Well, this time I was delayed by filing out the paperwork for the new team," Kakashi sighed tiredly, rubbing the back of his head.

"Today, we start our first mission as a new team! Be enthusiastic! Kakashi-sensei, you've been like that for ages!" The blonde-haired ninja

"Oh, let it go! There's nothing he can do about the fact that he has a face devoid of any enthusiasm!" Sakura retorted back defensively at her friend.

 _"I'm... losing my dignity, aren't I?" Kakashi cringed in a sweat-dropped in thought._

Sakura, on the other hand, was looking over at her wrist with a sand bracelet on and questioning, whether it will still continue to go on to bleed or not. She hope it would not. At least, that's what she had in mind.

Then, he noticed a messenger hawk flying across the sky and hovers over towards the Hokage tower building for further information.

One of the jounins pulled out a letter from the hawk and exclaimed in shock. "This... This is the sand's fastest one, Takamaru! Code team, hurry and come here!"

They rolled the scroll over to see what the message was and they knew that it was a terrible news.

"Something definitely has happened!"

"Understood, I'll decode it right away!"

Inside one of the mission rooms, Team Kakashi were in front of the tables where they were still trying to get assigned a new mission by Lady Tsunade.

"Ehh! That mission is boring... No thanks!" Naruto groaned in frustration.

"Heh?! What kind of response is that? Well?!" Tsunade's hand was placed on the side of her jawline on the left with her teeth clenched in irritation at the blonde-haired kid.

 _"Please don't talk so selfishly! She'll get angry at me!" Kakashi's eyes was gazed over at his student nervously at his tantrum._

"Geh... Naruto, you haven't mentally matured at all, have you?" Iruka grabbed the right side of his head, trying to relieve the stress.

"Sorry, sensei! I'll sort him out!" Sakura punched Naruto on the top of his head.

 _ **"Idiot! You have no idea how terrible the fifth can be when saying those kinds of things. Gaargh!" Her inner Sakura yelled out in rage.**_

"The third was more sensible..." Naruto muttered quietly.

"Huh?! What did you say?!" Tsunade asked him to repeat those words again. If looks could kill.

"Hey... Calm down!" Sakura tries to constrain him from throwing insults at the fifth hokage.

"It's bad! Lady Tsunade! We just received the message. The sand's Kazekage has been kidnapped by an organization called the Akatsuki!" One of the jounins informed out loud, much to the others' dismay.

Sakura's eyes widened in shock and felt a burning sensation from the sand bracelet she's wearing. The wound began to reopen again as the blood drips down from her hand. She winced a little in pain after seeing it happen. "Argh!"

"Ah! Sakura, you okay?! We can treat it later at the hospital," Naruto placed his hand upon her left shoulder to check to see if she's okay and thought worriedly. _"Gaara... Those guys again...? They can't be..."_

Tsunade closed her eyes for a moment and flutters them open sharply, announcing. "Right, Team Kakashi. I will tell you now your new mission. Before that, you are to go immediately to the sand, find out the situation and relay it to the hidden leaf. After that, follow the orders of the sand and back them up. Understood?"

"Yes, ma'am!" They said in unison.

"Let's go!" Naruto exclaimed.

Meanwhile outside the hidden sand village, Kankuro was still helplessly fighting against Sasori and is now lying down in exhaustion after running out of chakra that he had used to control his puppets.

"Your plan was good. It's just not good enough against me. Your puppet's whole poison preparation mechanism is worthy of praise," the Akatsuki member chuckled menacingly.

 _"Damn it... Why?! This is the first time my puppets preparation has been read into so deeply," Kankuro gritted his teeth in exasperation without having a lot of strength to stand back up._

"Haha, you have a strange look on your face. Why were your preparations known? It's because the one that created your puppet dolls; brow, black ant, and salamander, was none other than me!" Sasori revealed the truth, astonishing Kankuro to say the least. "A cute youngster like you being any opponent, it was the most fun battle I've ever had in a long time."

"So, wait. You're the one... they called the Puppet Army's Genius Model Creator? Sasori from the Red Sands, right?!" Kankuro stuttered in flabbergasted.

"For my name to be known all the way down to a kid like you is an honor," he quoted in gratitude.

"You left the sand over 20 years ago... Why?!" Kankuro asked in confusion.

"What good is it for a person about to die to ask that?!" Sasori raised up the puppet's tail in front of him, oozing with purple acidic liquid and swung right all over his body.

Kankuro grunted in pain as he struggles to control his puppets with his left hand, then attacks him with a last bit of his chakra left in him. He was starting to lose his consciousness when his eyes were beginning to blur in a sudden haze and hope for someone to save him.

"This poison is making it's rounds. To be suffering like you are... If you want to live so badly, I won't kill you off here. However, that poison will kill you in 3 days," explained Sasori.

 _"Gaara..." Kankuro thought sadly in mind._

"Shit... Here he is! Over there! He's down and his puppets are all in pieces!" The jounin discovered his unconscious body when the rest of the team ran to go and retrieve him back to the hospital to get an emergency treatment.

"Well, off we go! See you soon, guys!" Naruto said in a farewell to Iruka and Tsunade as they departed from the hidden leaf village.

"Do your best!" Iruka reminded him.

"Yeah!" Naruto chirped and glanced at the familiar white-haired man in front of him.

"Yo! Going on a mission eh, Naruto?"

"Yes, pervy sage!" The blonde-haired ninja saluted.

"More importantly... Tsunade, something terrible has happened. The sand's Kazekage-"

"Yes, I know... I'm about to send these guys off to there now," Tsunade folded her arms until Jiraiya mentioned what happened between Naruto and the Akatsuki in a hush whisper.

"Naruto, come here for a sec," the white-haired sanin gestured his arm.

"Hm?"

"Be careful when it comes to the Akatsuki," Jiraiya warned.

"They've got something against me, so this time I'm coming after them," Naruto stated with his eyes narrowed firmly.

"Yeah, you have gotten stronger and all. But when you feel as though you're about to lose control, get a grip on yourself or you'll mess up. Becoming hot-headed too fast is your bad habit. I know you know. However, don't use that jutsu," Jiraiya noted at hand.

"I know..." Naruto murmured softly.

"Kakashi, make sure Naruto doesn't do anything stupid. He's all yours," Jiraiya notified while looking at the blonde-haired ninja's expression of distress.

"Yeah..." Kakashi agreed with a smile beneath his mask.

"Come on, Sakura, Kakashi-sensei, let's move on!" The blonde-haired ninja called out behind him.

"Wai-Wait a minute, Naruto!" Sakura was stepping up to catch up to him, so that they could have a conversation while they head onto their journey.

Tsunade and the others watch them leave and asked Iruka. "Are you worried?"

"Nah. He isn't the kind of weak shinobi that I would worry about and Sakura too. Maturity is a weird thing..." he said smilingly.

Tsunade and Jiraiya smiled at that and went back inside the village to take care of things.

After Team Kakashi were hopping onto different tree branches, Sakura's eyes widened in surprise to recognize a familiar kunoichi walking back to her hometown.

"Temari!"

She looked over her shoulder and stopped for a moment to meet up with them. "Hey... Where are you guys going?"

"Didn't you hear about the news? Gaara's been kidnapped by the Akatsuki..." Naruto said quickly.

"What?! Gaara...!" Temari was disturbed by this and looks back on what had happened when her cup of tea started to crack, which was a bad sign.

"It'll take 3 days to reach the sand from here. Let's hurry," Kakashi informed.

"Okay," she agreed to come along with them.

While they were heading off hastily to figure out some tactics on their heads in order to get through the Akatsuki, all they can do right now is to find different clues and answers from other people in the hidden sand village.

The blonde-haired ninja was stomping onto the tree branches so harshly that Kakashi and the other two kunoichis have been noticing lately.

"Naruto, Just because I said to hurry, you shouldn't split up the team. Don't get so heated. Didn't Jiraiya just tell you that?" Kakashi reminded him.

"I can't stand it...! Even I know why they're after me and Gaara... You know, right Sakura? Inside us are tailed-beasts. Gaara and I are the same... because we have monsters contained in our bodies, that is what the Akatsuki are after. That's what I cannot stand. Just seeing us as monster, I cannot help but feel so bad for people looking at us whatever way they feel like. He was fighting and he was more lonelier than I was..." Naruto clenched his teeth tightly in anger.

Sakura looks down without any words to say to him as she remembers most of the times that both of her best friends have gone through and the days she had with them. Her eyes started glistening in tears of sadness and sympathy towards them.

"He was targeted by them. Just like I was before. Even so, why is it always him alone that has to have such a hard role?! Always him alone?! That's why! That's why I won't just sit around asking why... This time, for definite, I want to save him..." The blonde-haired ninja expressed emotionally.

"You can't be the only one... You can't do it alone, Naruto. I also want to save him... He means everything to us... I, for one, would want to be capable and willing to reach out to those who need help. I wasn't just training these two and a half years. I was looking through Lady Tsunade's notes and researched outside as much as I could. You know, Itachi Uchiha, right? He is the older brother of Sasuke. That is what he wants to kill..." Sakura concluded as she began to think of finding a way to stop the chaos from happening to her friends. _"And after that, our worst enemies who causes suffering for Gaara, Sasuke and targetting Naruto... This time, I will save them!"_

During the afternoon back in the hidden leaf village, Tsunade was looking through the paperwork that was piled up on top of her desk. As she reaches for her drink, the sounds of a small crack running through the teacup made her become uneasy about sending Naruto's team into danger.

* * *

 _TO BE CONTINUED..._


	4. Gaara's Determination

**Hey, guys! This chapter is going to be about a few flashbacks of the days that Gaara and Sakura, including the Konoha** **11 and the Sand siblings that they had spent time together. Furthermore, it will have a few of sentimental scenarios that I've already written for this part.** **Check out the Gaara AMV called "Undone" before you start reading this chapter. It's very emotional and intense to see every other scenes of Gaara from the anime, which really describes him as one of the strongest people who are willing to do the right thing and never gives up hope.**

 **Anyways, please read & review! :)**

* * *

 _FLASHBACK:_

 _A month later after the latest incident with bringing back Sasuke, the leaf shinobi decided to take a break from their training and make plans to spend time with their families and friends around town. A few of them were taking an afternoon stroll while they were having a friendly conversation amongst themselves._

 _The white blonde-haired kunoichi yawns tiredly as she stretches out her arms, saying. "Ahh. It sure feels nice to be out in this fresh, breezy weather."_

 _"Yeah... It does," the pink-haired kunoichi murmured softly in agreement._

 _"You sound a little glum. Are you feeling alright, Sakura?" Ino asked curiously when she glanced at her._

 _"Hehe... Of course. Why wouldn't I be?" Sakura slowly nervously._

 _"Hmm. You miss them, don't you?" Ino guessed it right._

 _Sakura looked away silently and didn't bother to answer her._

 _"Hey. At least, we have the opportunity to enjoy our time with others, you know. Even if Naruto and Sasuke have been away for a couple of months now, it doesn't mean you could stay sad. I get that a lot," Ino said thoughtfully._

 _"You're right. I should be happy and more relaxed," Sakura agreed with a nod._

 _"Have you ever contact your other friend, Gaara?" The white blonde-haired kunoichi asked with a chirp_.

 _"Sometimes, but he seems busy tutoring his student, Matsuri, at the Ninja Program. He barely responds to my letters that much," the pink-haired kunoichi stated with a tired sigh._

 _"Well, you know. I heard from Shikamaru that Gaara and his siblings are going to visit here and have a two-week vacation here," Ino mentioned happily._

 _"They are?" Sakura's eyes widened in astonishment._

 _"Yeah. Isn't that great news?!" Ino jumped excitedly._

 _"Hmm," Sakura nodded and looks up at the sky in hopes to see her best friend again. She is thinking of giving him a small present as a surprise before he arrives in the evening. She could not pinpoint on what it would be and the only thing that she has in her mind is food. But what kind? Certainly, desserts are always the best choice for most people who have a sweet tooth. Although, she does not know if Gaara likes strawberries with chocolate dips or not. Either way, it doesn't really matter since it is a surprise. But, does it? She shrugged off the negative thought and continues to keep walking with Ino._

 _At that time in the third training ground, the leaf squad was gathered in a circle to discuss the plans they will spend with each other. However, a few of them would rather go on with their training._

 _"Jeez, Lee. Will you just relax for a bit?" Tenten exasperated as she placed her hand on her right hip._

 _"No... I must keep working hard. Not until I reach 1,000 push-ups... I'm almost there..." Bushy-brow ninja was counting and panting while he was sweating._

 _"So what do you guys want to do?" Kiba asked whereas Akamaru barked._

 _"Let's go zip-lining or skydiving! Yeah!" Choji munches on the chips and pumped up his fist in the air highly._

 _"That sounds a little extreme," Neji chuckled in amusement._

 _"Isn't it what having fun is all about?" Kiba emphasized the point._

 _"Ugh, seriously, you guys. It's more like middle school games," Tenten rolled her eyes in annoyance._

 _"How about traveling into different villages?" Hinata stuttered with an idea._

 _"Hm. Yeah, why not? After all, we should try it for some time. It is best to get to know others, right?" Shino said skeptically, pushing his sunglasses up towards his nose as always._

 _"I don't know about that. We can't go away leaving our hometown without any protection or security around. Better to stay here," a voice called out straightforwardly from behind them that turns their heads on two familiar kunoichis, standing beside one another._

 _They were all surprised to see them holding a few wrapped up gifts in their hands._

 _"Sakura, Ino. Glad to see you two gals! What are those in your hands?" Tenten asked in amazement. Her eyes gazed over medium sized purple boxes._

 _"These are for the Sand Siblings and for Gaara," Sakura said_ with a smile.

 _"Yeah. She's literally over-exaggerating in her mind about giving the most, splendid offering to her best friend," Ino giggled with a snort._

 _"Oh, stop. I was never..." the pink-haired kunoichi hid the blush that almost crept on her cheeks._

 _"Hey, guys! We should all go now. Shikamaru said that we should meet him at the Barbecue place for us to eat dinner!" Kiba reminded out loud, gesturing his hands on both sides of his mouth._

 _"Of course. Let's go," Neji smirked and nodded in agreement._

 _"Yeah! Woohoo! Barbecue in the house! Dibs on moi!" Choji exclaimed in glee._

 _"Boys," Tenten sighed wearily._

 _"I know right. Tell me about it. Oh well," Ino shook her head as they were following behind them while walking._

 _On the other hand, Sakura began to_ _contemplate about a lot of things she has to prioritize. As of now, she couldn't stop thinking about Sasuke._

 _END OF FLASHBACK_

 _FLASHBACK:_

 _Inside the barbecue place, the leaf squad sat down in their seats while they already started eating and drinking a few chugs of wine and champagne. The room was filled with laughter, cheering and casual chattering during the game they're playing._

 _"Who's ready for round two of beef steaks?" Kiba grinned, whereas Akamaru barked in agreement._

 _"Aye! Me!" Choji pumped both of his fists up in the air to encourage more food challenge._

 _"Jeez... Lay back, you're going to have trouble with your cardiovascular health if you constantly keep eating those types of fat-" Ino didn't get to finish her sentence when her teammate gave her a shiny glare towards her. She decided to control her words carefully without having to offend him instead._

 _"Don't say a word," Tenten gritted her teeth and laughs nervously._

 _"I know," Ino said as she sweatdropped._

 _Shikamaru looked over at the pink-haired kunoichi, who was currently waiting for the Sand Siblings to arrive. He noticed that she was fidgeting her thumbs and taps the purple gift boxes silently. He asked smilingly. "Waiting for someone?"_

 _"Ah! Well... Yeah, for them, really," Sakura chuckled faintly._

 _"Hmm..." the leaf squad responded melodically in unison._

 _Sakura reacted to this in shock but shrugged it off as she continued to stare blankly off into space._

 _Neji glanced at the entrance door when he noticed a blonde-haired ponytail kunoichi, including the purple-faced ninja and a red-haired ninja, who finally came in. "It's them."_

 _Lee looked behind him and waved for them to approach their table with a loud greeting. "Hey, guys!"_

 _"What's up, y'all?" Kiba nodded coolly as he watches the three siblings walking closely towards them._

 _"You guys have eaten ahead of us. Wow, you should be ashamed," Kankuro joked lightly, shaking his head._

 _"No doubt about that," Temari giggled._

 _"Hm. Not really, we just decided to eat the first appetizers on the menu," Tenten answered._

 _"Sakura..."_

 _The pink-haired kunoichi's eyes began to widen in surprise and gasped when her head turns over her right shoulder and recognized a familiar voice that called her. Her lips curled into a genuine smile and got up from her seat to give him the surprise gift. "Gaara..."_

 _She was walking in front of him and pulled out the presents, whereas Ino stayed in her spot and gave the two presents for the older siblings._

 _They thanked the white blonde-haired kunoichi as the others were greeting them politely and inviting them to eat dinner with them since they know that they will be staying for a few weeks._

 _"Thank you. How are things going on with you?" Gaara asked softly._

 _"It's great... Just wonderful, I guess. I've been training hard and been focusing on my medical ninjutsu studies and research. Come on, let's go eat. You don't want to miss it," Sakura replied as she smiled excitedly while taking his hand and leading him to the table with their friends._

 _"Alright," the red-haired ninja said with a curt nod as they were making their way towards their seats._

 _END OF FLASHBACK_

 _FLASHBACK:_

 _After everyone went home and said goodnight to each other, Gaara and Sakura decided to take a night stroll and stopped by on the bridge, watching the river flows calmly and hear the little birds sing sweetly._

 _"I had a good time with all of you. I enjoyed it a lot," the red-haired ninja said, gazing down at their own reflection in the water._

 _The pink-haired kunoichi leaned against the wooden railing and agreed. "Me too..."_

 _Gaara glanced at her and noticed that she was frowning lately. He asked her. "Are you alright?"_

 _"Hm. Maybe, I guess..." Sakura murmured in a hushed tone_.

 _"I see," the red-haired ninja replied. Although, he didn't want to ask any further questions that will only upset her._

 _At this moment, he started to remember something about what he was going to mention. "By the way, the councilors, advisors, and the elders are still making their decisions on who to elect the new Kazekage in our village."_

 _"Oh my gosh. Really?! Did they know that you wanted to become the leader?" Sakura gushed out in surprise._

 _"Yes. However after finding out my dark past, they were having several doubts," Gaara answered calmly._

 _"Oh... Why? Just because you're a jinchuriki...? That you have one of the tailed beasts inside of you..?" The pink-haired kunoichi questioned, feeling slightly annoyed._

 _"No. It's fine. Don't worry," the red-haired ninja said._

 _"But Gaara... It's time for everyone in your village to see the real you. To acknowledge your existence and to appreciate all the efforts and hard work you've put up with," Sakura pointed out strongly_.

 _"All I can do right now is... have faith," Gaara said quietly as he looks up at the half shape of the moon._

 _Sakura paused for a moment as she closes her eyes, sighing. "You're right. But you know. I'm here to support you."_

 _"I understand. Thank you for that. I appreciate it," he said sincerely._

 _They stayed quiet for a few minutes, not knowing what to say until Sakura's tear fell down from her left cheek and drops onto the river with a sound of a light drip, rippling the water, much to Gaara's concern._

 _"Are you sure you're feeling alright?" He asked as he began to examine her face._

 _"No... I'm not," she muttered weakly. She wrapped herself around him and starts to cry silently._

 _Gaara's eyes softened as he was recently comforting her warmly, so she would feel safe and secure in his arms. There was no doubt that Sakura would never miss her two teammates, which she considers them as her best friends. She knew that she somehow finds a way to let her sadness out. She feels lonely and empty without them. She needed someone. She was grateful for Gaara that he was there by her side. His heart was skipping a few beats in his chest, not knowing what the feeling is. Though, he finally came to that answer. It was love. But friendship love or more? He asked himself that question and couldn't figure out which way it is._

 _Once they both let go of one another, they still continued to chill out in the middle of the night and spoke amongst themselves._

 _"I know it's difficult, Sakura. They may be miles away, but looking at the people who love you are always here whenever you need them, including me. Do not be disheartened at most of the times. As for your medical ninjutsu training, that is a great way to stay active and play your part," the red-haired ninja stated._

 _"I have never seen yours as well," the pink-haired kunoichi pouted._

 _"Oh, yeah. That's right. I made a few promises to you. I will show it to you around this time of the week," the red-haired ninja noted._

 _"Really?! Why not tomorrow? I'm sure you are way ahead of me as far as I can tell," Sakura beamed with a huge smile._

 _Gaara stared at her deeply when he was looking back and forth between her beautiful green-orb eyes that she holds so dearly. He couldn't help but be more mesmerized by her presence._

 _Sakura's cheeks tinged in pink and asked quickly. "Wha-what is it? Is there something wrong with me?"_

 _"No, no. Nothing is wrong. I just noticed how strong you are getting and I have a feeling that you will be one of the strongest kunoichis," Gaara predicted thoughtfully._

 _"Oh. Thanks. You too," Sakura said shyly with a smile and also looked into his green-jaded eyes that reflected upon the moon itself in the sky._

 _"I would love to see more of your new different techniques. How are they coming along?" The red-haired ninja asked contentedly._

 _"Yeah, of course. Definitely," the pink-haired kunoichi nodded in agreement._

 _"So? Is this why you guys eventually do without having to inform us? Hmm?" A loud familiar voice peeped in that made them glanced surprisingly at the person who was walking in front of them. He continued on, interrogating them with a slight tease. "Ah, yes. The young lovebirds enjoying their time together in this nightfall."_

 _"Jeez, Kankuro. Leave them be. I'm sure they're only friends," Temari sighed as she rolled her eyes._

 _"I'm kidding. Lighten up, cranky sis," Kankuro snickered._

 _"What did you just call me?" Temari turned around to make him repeat what he said._

 _"I said you are a cranky, old lady-" Kankuro didn't get to finish his sentence when he got whacked on the head by her fan. "OUCH! That hurts!"_

 _Gaara and Sakura started laughing at how the two were busy bickering towards each other. But they both know that they were only just playing along._

 _END OF FLASHBACK_

Back in the present time, Team Kakashi and Temari were still heading off through the forests more quickly and finally arrives at the hidden sand village. They headed inside where the other jounins were informing that the red-haired Kazekage had been abducted by the Akatsuki. Moreover, Kankuro tried to confront and save his younger brother. Unfortunately, he was severely wounded. They all hurried on their way to the medical sand hospital as soon as possible.

"They got him too?!" Temari questioned in shock.

"Yes, and he was poisoned by the enemy and we have no other option to neutralize it. At this rate, he has half a day at the most to survive," One of the jounins explained briefly.

"Shit..." The ponytail blonde-haired kunoichi cursed under her breath in anger.

"Let's hurry, Temari," the pink-haired kunoichi said with her eyes narrowed. "I'll examine him!"

Both of them were rushing inside the room where Kankuro was currently laying down unconsciously in the bed where the others are waiting.

The elderly woman took a careful glance at the white-haired jounin, looking at her with a puzzled expression.

"The white fang of the hidden leaf," she stated sternly.

"Eh?" Kakashi was confused by that.

Suddenly, the elderly woman began to take an action against him, but Naruto immediately stopped her using his shadow clone, much to the people's astonishment.

"Hey! Why are you going at Kakashi-sensei so suddenly for, you wrinkled old hag!" The blonde-haired yelled vehemently.

"I remember that time when that white fang of the hidden leaf became my son's enemy. I will get my revenge for him today!" She declared coldly.

However, one of the elderly men stopped her with his arm gesture, pointing it out clearly. "Sister, take a good look. There's a strong resemblance, but he isn't the white fang of the hidden leaf."

"Huh?!" The elderly woman squinted her eyes so closely and was dumbstruck, saying with a laughter. "No way! I was just pretending to be stupid! Haha!"

"Whew..." Kakashi sweat dropped at that.

A couple of minutes later, Sakura's hair was tied up and began to examine Kankuro's internal organs from his body to see where the poison had greatly affected him. From there, she carefully use one of her medical healing jutsu with both of her hands that creates big blobs, extracting the poison out in the process.

"Heh... I don't think there's any need to worry about his life anymore. I've directly removed it," the pink-haired kunoichi wipes off the sweats from her face with a smile.

Temari sighed in relief as she slid down against the wall onto the floor, resting.

"Now I have to make an antidote for the little bit of poison left in his body. We can't relax yet. Please gather what I say," the pink-haired kunoichi noted firmly.

 _"Wow... Sakura. You're amazing," Naruto thought impressively in mind with a little blush on his cheeks._

"You're a lot like that slug princess. That a girl you would become," the elderly woman complimented.

"Yes! It's because Lady Tsunade is my master and she said that I should come here," Sakura genuinely beamed with admiration of her.

"Sister, time is really slowly flowing by," the elderly man quoted to the elderly woman beside him.

"Right! But we're not going to be slow! Let's go right after the Akatsuki!" Naruto exclaimed enthusiastically.

Later on, a medicine storehouse in the desert lies in there the greenery that is thickly-grown.

"Wow, to think that the sand has this much medical herbs here, I wasn't expecting this," Sakura said in surprise.

"Excuse us, it is difficult to grow herbs in this climate, we have an especially small amount of white-flowered plant," the elderly woman replied.

"No, that's alright. There is plenty here. I will be able to prepare three antidotes," the pink-haired kunoichi informed positively.

Meanwhile, Naruto and the others discussed about the Akatsuki's motives in one of the hospital rooms.

"There is something I would like to ask. What came of the pursuit of the Akatsuki after that. Kankuro went alone after them. There was nobody there with him. Then, have we completely lost them?" Kakashi asked in wonder.

"Yes, we have," Baki answered correctly.

After Kankuro sat up on the bed with a slouch, Temari went over to his side to see if he's feeling alright.

On the other hand, Sakura went back in and helps Kankuro drink up all the medicine antidote, which will completely cure him.

"Hey, little pinky... Thank you for the treatment," he said smiling sadly with an exhalation.

"You're welcome," she said grinning as she and the others prepare to head out on a journey.

Naruto hand in her backpack to get ready and said. "Alright! Let's go!"

Before they step outside the hospital room, Kankuro told them to wait for a minute.

"I have a huge favor for the both of you... Sakura, Naruto... Please save my brother. I know how much he means to all of us," he muttered in a grief.

The pink-haired kunoichi turned around and smiled brightly like she always would as she tried her hardest not to cry in front of the others. "Don't worry, we will."

"Leave it all to us! That's a promise!" Naruto declared determinedly.

Sakura glanced at her teammate as her eyes began to sadden a little. But she decided not to worry about it too much.

"Hold on! I'm going too!" The ponytail blonde-haired kunoichi said.

"Temari, stay here and work on defense of this country border. From the shinobi of the sand, I am more than enough," the elderly woman pointed out.

"Lady Chio..."

"That would be too much," Baki said.

"Ugh. Don't treat me like an old woman!" She stated boldly as she jumped down gracefully on the ground that frightens Naruto and Sakura a bit by her aura.

"I've always wanted to give my cute grandson some love for a while now..." Chio said with an intense stare.

They were all eventually going to find out who they will encounter.

* * *

TO _BE CONTINUED..._


	5. No Way, No Win!

**Hey, guys! I kind of rushed this chapter a little bit because of school projects that I have to keep working on. Sorry about that. But don't worry, I will write more in a deeper sense for the next chapter.**

 **Anyways, please read & review! :)**

* * *

Inside the cave lies the group members of the Akatsuki surrounding themselves in a circle as they are ready to prepare for the upcoming ritual.

"You're late. Prepare it immediately," said the leader in a hologram state.

"The jinchuriki was stronger than I thought, yeah," Deidara replied coolly as he and Sasori were bringing the red-haired Kazekage forward to the front of the center.

Then, the leader summoned a giant statue of a humanoid monster form, commanding. "Assemble... Now, let us begin this. From this point onward, it'll take three days and nights to complete it. Everyone also be mindful of your real bodies. Okay, now Zetsu, use your real body as a lookout. Use your largest range."

"I know. Three days, eh? With Orochimaru gone, shouldn't we expect it to take a bit longer?" One of the Akatsuki members asked logically.

"If you really think so, then let's get started already," the Akatsuki leader suggested and made a seal jutsu with a complete nine illusion dragon seal.

"An enemy from the hidden leaf is approaching our hideout. He appears to be very skilled. His name is Gai Mighty," the white Zetsu informed them.

"Who's that?" One of them asked curiously.

"He's a jounin from the leaf village that uses only taijutsu. He's quite talented, so take care not to underestimate him," the leader pointed out.

"I'll use that jutsu."

"Let me go instead. I've had a hard time finding my jinchuriki and I've been starting to get irritated."

"No. I will go. I have a personal vendetta against that man."

"Indeed. After all, that jutsu is suitable for you as you have a large amount of chakra even for this organization, Kisame," the leader said impressively.

"Oh well, finally," the shark-faced man said smirking with excitement. He quickly disappears out of the hologram state and back into his real mind consciousness. He opened his eyes sharply and recognized Gai's team arriving in a minute and out of the forests trees to confront him. "Ah, looks like the bizzare beast is as dumb as one as well. Well, at any rate, I'd better refresh your memory..."

Neji and Tenten uses their own techniques and new ones to encounter Kisame's attacks. However, the jutsus became futile to him.

"Damn... I missed," Tenten cursed under her breath in annoyance, smoothing out the paper scroll.

On the contrary, Kisame was hiding below the water with half of his face covered, remarking. "Those pesky little brats. An extreme nuisance."

"That aquatic ninjutsu and that huge sword... You must be..." Gai examined the Akatsuki member to search for a familiarity in his figure and knew who it was.

"It seems you have finally remembered me," Kisame said in awe.

"Someone I've met before," Gai muttered with his eyes narrowed at him.

"Heh. You really have a talent of getting on people's nerves. I suppose I'll toy with you until you remember," Kisame retorted slyly.

Meanwhile back in the forests, Sakura and the others were heading on to go find their friend and rescue him from the Akatsuki. But there was no any other options left, except to create an intelligent plan to track them down one by one.

"Naruto, can I ask you something?" The pink-haired kunoichi glanced at him and continued on seriously. "Since when did they started targeting you?"

"I don't know..." the blonde-haired ninja murmured as he look back at the memory of his past.

"A while ago, two of the Akatsuki's agents had infiltrated the leaf village in order to contact Naruto. It's been three years since then and they've started to make a move. Though, I can't seem to quite find the motive behind this," Kakashi explained the side of their story.

"Why did they wait for three years?" Sakura questioned in suspicion.

"Maybe it was that they couldn't take action, rather than choosing not to. He always had Jiraiya on his side. Well, from what I've gathered, I've heard there were other reasons. It requires considerable preparation to separate a "tailed beast" that is sealed within a man. I assume that's what hampered their effort," the white-haired copy ninja concluded without having a clear evidence as to why they did what they did.

"A tailed beast...?" Sakura asked.

"What? You call yourself Tsunade's apprentice and you don't know that?" Chio was astonished calmly.

"I do know... Ever since I've known it as a child and throughout my preteen years, I've known about Gaara and Naruto..." the pink-haired kunoichi trailed off of her words as she was deeply saddened by the fact that the two of her friends were at their lives being threatened from the most dangerous shinobi group of all.

"The information regarding the nine tails is a top secret material in leaf," Kakashi said.

"I suppose," the elderly woman agreed and continued on. "The tailed beasts are in fact a magical ones that possesses the tails. The sand's always possessed the one tail that is the guardian raccoon sealed within Gaara."

"So there are other different kinds of them aside from him and Naruto, right?" Sakura guessed correctly.

"Indeed, there are a total of nine in this world," Kakashi answered.

"Each beast differs in characteristics depending on the number of tails they have. They all possess each number of tails, according to the beasts' names," Chio stated, much to Sakura's unpleasant reaction.

She already knew that all the tailed beasts are a monstrous formation of chakra where they were being used during the great ninja war for military purposes. That is where every hidden village attempted to acquire their power. They competed to obtain them, but none of the shinobi can control that much of a power beyond the ability of men rather than the rest of the jinchuriki themselves. Thus, they were all scattered around the world.

"Everyone, halt!" Kakashi warned firmly at the sight of an Akatsuki figure in a near distance from them.

"Who...?" Sakura asked, feeling slight uncomfortable.

"Right from the beginning..." Kakashi muttered quietly.

"This man's eyes..." Chio recognized them.

"Itachi Uchiha!" Naruto identified loudly.

Sakura's eyes narrowed in anger towards the older brother of Sasuke. She couldn't help but feel rage inside of her and would not even forgive him for what he did to her teammates. Now, the only person he is targeting is someone who is important to her.

"You bastard... Not just me, but even Gaara?! I'll beat you all down!" Naruto declared boldly with his finger pointed at him.

"Everyone! Don't look directly at his eyes. It's dangerous...!" Kakashi gestured his arm out.

Itachi raised his hand sign to use one of his illusion techniques to hallucinate them.

"What should we do then?!" Sakura clenched her teeth in frustration.

"Judge his movements of his body and feet. Itachi's genjutsu is an eye jutsu. In other words, it's a vision type. You'll be fine if you avoid his eye contact," Kakashi briefly explained.

"That's really difficult..." Sakura muttered as she sweat dropped.

"Hmm, the Uchiha clan has become extinct. It's been a long time since I've fought a sharingan user. There's no need to be overwhelmed. There are many tactics for fighting this eye technique," Chio mentioned.

"Now what?!" Naruto interrogated quickly in a hurry.

"If it's one on one, surely flee. If it's two on one, take the rear," Chio said smartly.

"What do you mean?" The blonde-haired ninja asked in confusion.

"Even if that's impossible, they can help their partner by cancelling the genjutsu themselves. That is, if there are multiple opponents, one person can divert and the other can move behind to the sharingan's blind spot and attack," the elderly woman stated.

"I see..." Sakura understood this.

"Yeah, the old hag is useful!" Naruto complimented with a proud smirk.

From that moment on, Naruto decides to make a move on towards the enemy in front of him, using his Rasengan technique rapidly to distract him. However, his attack on him was only a substitute clone, which he started to be a little more frustrated.

"What?!" The blonde-haired was shocked to see his pink-haired kunoichi collapsed down on her knees, trembling. "Sa-Sakura..."

He has no idea what to do, but face Itachi in front of him with a glare on his face. Though, he doesn't know what will happen to him at this time on. He could only try to find a way to knock him down without having a single flinch.

Luckily for Sakura, she was careful enough not to get caught in Itachi's genjutsu.

Unfortunately for Naruto, he is currently trapped.

But there is only one way for the pink-haired kunoichi to do.

* * *

 _TO BE CONTINUED..._


	6. Holding Onto You

**I just want to let you know that I made a "GaaSaku** **AMV - Our Story To Save The World" for the first time. Please check this video on Youtube.**

 **Anyway, please read & review! :)**

* * *

Luckily, Sakura and the others had finally snapped Naruto out of the genjutsu by only tapping onto his shoulders. He was glad that he had broken free from the genjutsu.

"Hey, get a hold of yourself!" The pink-haired kunoichi voiced out clearly as she touched his right cheek gently to startle him.

"Naruto, I'll show you how to do it," Kakashi pointed out, then watches Itachi make his first move to attack them, using his Grand Fireball jutsu. Though, he dodges it and pops out of the ground and gives him a punch.

They both exchanged the same blows towards each other. But for a few seconds there, Kakashi got trapped in a genjutsu after looking into Itachi's eyes. He noticed that his legs was starting to burn in flames.

However, Itachi didn't expect him to be affected by his illusion and only to find that Kakashi used a shadow clone.

The copy-haired ninja commanded Naruto to prepare his Great Sphere Rasengan that completely obliterated the area, much to Sakura and Chio's astonishment.

Later on, they all investigated that Itachi switched his real body with another ninja, who is a jounin from a hidden sand village.

Back inside the cave, the rest of the Akatsuki members were still trying to extract the One-Tail beast out of Gaara's body.

"Hmm... The jutsu has been released. But we've been able to buy a considerable amount of time. Then that is enough. Well done, Itachi and Kisame," the leader said proudly.

"You say that so simply. For the sacrifice for your jutsu, the two bodies given up were both of my subordinates," Sasori replied.

"Hmph. With my 'Imitation Shape-shifting technique,' they became Akatsuki members, even for just a little while. I'd think they should be thanking us, but... Fufu... Almost there, isn't it?" He asked slyly, waiting for the plan to be done and well succeeded.

Their objective was to gather many information about the rest of the jinchurikis in order to gain the kind of power themselves.

After Chio and Team Kakashi had discovered a dead corpse of a ninja lying down, she pointed out that the Akatsuki will somehow use the One-tail Shukaku to make a new jinchuriki. Although, there wasn't any time left to encounter them again. Instead, they have to hurry to save Gaara. They come to the point where the dangerous organization, including every country in the world wanted to use the tailed beasts for military affairs. Even if they can control their power, it would not be possible for them to do that. Since over time, the people had attempted to use it by sealing the tailed-beasts in humans, which is compressed.

Naruto, on the other hand, was consciously placing his hand over his belly, not finding out the right words to say.

"The feature of jinchuriki is that they resonate with the tailed beasts and can use inconceivable power, especially Gaara, in the history of the sand. Three have appeared so far," Chio explained quietly.

Sakura looked down deep in her thought for a moment, then asks. "These jinchuriki were used many times for war, weren't they...?"

"That's right," the elderly woman concluded.

"Then! The one made into jinchuriki..." the pink-haired kunoichi trailed off of her words as her lips began to falter nervously and glances sadly at her best friend. She turned back to look at Chio, asking. "How do you they remove a tailed beast?"

The elderly woman answered. "If, for even an instant, a sealing jutsu which releases the exact amount of power to match up with the jinchuriki is used that takes a considerable amount of time. But if that were to be done, the jinchuriki would-"

"You mean..." Sakura's eyes began to open wide as she comes to the point of realization in shock.

"If it was extracted, that jinchuriki will die..." Chio concluded until they all stayed silent for a few minutes until she continued on. "The two I mentioned before... the jinchuriki of the sand apart from Gaara had the Shukaku extracted from their bodies, and this caused their deaths."

The pink-haired kunoichi started to tear up a little from the corners of her eyes, feeling disheartened.

"You're always cry so easily, Sakura. I told you not to worry... because I'll rescue Gaara!" Naruto grinned surely at her.

Though, she argued about it. "But... it's also you that I'm-"

"Come on, let's go!" The blonde-haired ninja turned around to walk ahead without having to face her.

Sakura's tears was flowing down on her cheeks, not knowing what she should do due to the fact that there is no other way to remove the tailed beast. She was starting to feel devastated and to think about the death of her two best friends. She couldn't believe the fact that they will both suffer the same fate as the others.

 _"What should we do..." she thought in her mind unhappily._

During the nightfall, Naruto was sleeping tightly, whereas Chio and Kakashi were staying up to guard themselves in the middle of the forest. But for Sakura, she definitely had her eyes slightly opened until they began to shut in black.

 _ **"Hey... hey, Sakura! Are you awake?" A familiar voice called out to her, echoing through her ears.**_

 _The pink-haired kunoichi fluttered her eyes open slightly as she stood up on her feet and asked herself. "Where am I...?"_

 _ **"You're part of this sequence," a young girl answered with a smile.**_

 _"It's you!" Sakura exclaimed in surprise._

 _ **"Well, yeah. It's me and you're part of this sequence," her future self said grinning.**_

 _"So... this is not a dream then," Sakura said with reassurance._

 _ **"Nope. You're more likely in developing connections with moi. Because of your subconsciousness, you are capable to speak to me even when you are asleep. This is far different from the dream you dream," her future self explained and continued on. "But to not make this more complicated, I would rather get straight to the point of this matter."**_

 _"What is it?" Sakura asked curiously._

 _ **"Since the incident had revolved around you and the others, I would only give you a fair warning. I know what happened with Gaara seems to be out of control and traumatizing," her future self stated softly with a saddened expression.**_

 _"So what do you suppose I should do? Why do bad things keep targeting him most of the time?" Sakura questioned strongly._

 _ **"There are some things left to be unsaid. But it doesn't mean that other ones are not figured out. There is always a way. However, you must risk everything," her future self noted correctly.**_

 _"Like what?" Sakura asked further._

 _ **"You have to listen to what I'm about to tell you. And I promise you, this will all be worth it," her future self advised carefully.**_

 _"Alright, go on," Sakura urged._

 _ **"Have you ever felt grateful for all the best things and memories of people that come across your life?" Her future self interrogated.**_

 _"Yes, I do," Sakura nodded sincerely._

 _ **"Have you ever felt regret?" Her future self asked.**_

 _"What do you mean... when it comes to what?" Sakura questioned quietly._

 _ **"Love," her future self hinted for the first time.**_

 _"Uh... No, I don't think so," Sakura shook her head._

 _ **"Your mind says 'no,' but your heart says 'yes,'" her future self pointed out.**_

 _"What do you know?" Sakura remarked as she looked away from her._

 _ **"I've been there, remember? Unfortunately, I can never tell you specifically about how I regret one thing or should I say... One person," her future self hinted for the second time.**_

 _" Oh okay," Sakura nodded silently._

 _ **"We both have the same feelings when it comes to a guy that we knew and cared about," her future self concluded the hint.**_

 _"Wha-what?! That's it?! That's all you're going to say?! You're just going to leave clues like always. That's not even a warning-" Sakura began to rant in annoyance, but got quickly interrupted._

 _ **"Ah. This is only just the start. Be patient. I haven't told you the other most important details, so I'll tell you now," her future self smiled warmly at her present self.**_

 _Sakura stood on her spot and began to listen to what her future self was warning her. Her eyes widened in shock and was moving nervously._

She woke up with a huge gasp and coughed a few times.

Naruto came to her side, asking concernedly. "Sakura! Are you okay?!"

The pink-haired kunoichi was panting heavily and wipe the sweat from her forehead. She held it with a grasp of her palm and closed her eyes, then reopened them again. "Yeah... I'm alright."

"Good gracious. Young lady, I have a few bottle of drinks that you may need," Chio pulled out the medicinal herbal liquids from her big pouch as she handed one of them towards her.

"Thank you, lady Chio," Sakura gave a curt nod and took a whole sip of the bottle.

"You must be sick," the elderly woman pointed out.

"Yeah, your temperature is hot," Naruto checked her pulses.

Sakura glanced at him slowly with her eyes staring intensely at him.

"Ah! I didn't mean it like that!" The blonde-haired ninja waved his hands in the air as he sweat dropped at that.

"Let's get moving, shall we? So Sakura, make sure you don't overuse your chakra," Kakashi informed.

Sakura nodded in agreement. "Right."

When early morning came, Team Kakashi began to head out of the forest trees as soon as possible without leaving any traces for the enemies to catch them.

* * *

 _TO BE CONTINUED..._


	7. Sinful Acts of Sasori's Strings

**Hey, guys! Come and check out the music video of GaaSaku AMV's False Pretense. It's a really good song, which relates to these two lovely characters in the story.**

 **Anyway, please read & review! :)**

* * *

Meanwhile back inside the cave, the Akatsuki group are almost finish extracting every last bit of Gaara's tailed-beast out of his body. Once it was fully absorbed, his body fell unconsciously as he slowly dropped down on the ground. Not even a single breathing was made from him ever.

On the other hand, Sakura's eyes got startled wide open as she felt her sand bracelet, beginning to dissolve down and cracked, much to her puzzlement and confusion.

"Huh?!" The pink-haired kunoichi stumbled off the tree branch, but luckily she was grabbed by her friend's hand.

"Hey, what's wrong?" Naruto asked worriedly.

"My bracelet... It's ruined..." Sakura murmured nervously and gazed intently at her wrist.

"Yeah!? So why...?" The blonde-haired ninja questioned quietly. Though, he didn't want to figure out any further, so he decided to pull Sakura up on her feet. "Come on, we got no time to waste. Let's hurry!"

"You're right!" Sakura nodded in agreement as they continued to hop along the branches, whereas Kakashi and Chio were following behind them, talking among themselves.

The blonde-haired ninja gripped his fist tightly as he kept moving faster without even having to trip or fall off the trees.

"Wait, Naruto! Slow down!" Sakura called out as she was trying to catch up to him.

Kakashi explained to Chio that Naruto's dream is to become a hokage. "Even without saying much, he can become friends with anyone."

"I've lived long and seen many things. I've even learned some of the way of the world itself. And when I learned alliances with other countries were just in name. I worked out a method to protect the sand. I was the one who used the jutsu and sealed Shukaku into Gaara. I did to to protect the village, but the result was it caused hardship for the village. Without trusting the alliances, a village we avoided is currently trying to save us. What I did was possible entirely mistaken. Furthermore, I've gotten senile to the point where I give up easily. Kakashi, youth is something that holds such possibilities. I'm envious..."

"Hey, hey, you've still a way to go from here and you're young enough, aren't you?" Kakashi asked hopefully.

Chio laughed hysterically and said. "Well then. Maybe a senile fool like me still has some ability."

Once they reached the area of where the cave is, Gai's team saw them gladly.

"Yo! I hope you're not talking about me," Naruto pointed his thumb to himself after seeing their appearances.

"Everyone, you were one step ahead of us, weren't you?" Sakura said surprisingly.

"Who's that old lady?" Lee asked curiously.

"An adviser from the sand!" Gai noticed and continued on. "Right. Let's go for it, Kakashi!"

The white-haired ninja nodded in agreement and then, the others decided to make a plan on destroying the barrier in front of them. Neji insisted on examining the four tokens using his Byakugan. They are located in four different areas and they took them off at the same time. Sakura took her chance to use her inner strength of punch, breaking through the huge rocks. When Team Kakashi head inside the cave, their eyes widened in shock at the sight of the unconscious young red-haired Kazekage lying on the ground and being sat on by Deidara.

Sakura's attention on her best friend became very intense and subtle. Her heartbeat was pounding on her chest while her hands began to shake uncontrollably. She cried out hoarsely. "Gaara! Wake up, please!"

However, there was no answer coming from him. Not even a single breathing was made.

The blonde-haired ninja had already transformed into a Nine-Tailed Fox form. He clenched his fists tightly and asks him boldly. "Gaara! What are you doing there?! Stand the hell up!"

Chio and the others stood quietly at the enemies until Naruto started to make a move towards them.

"Give Gaara back! You bastards!" He yelled angrily.

"It seems like that jinchuriki wants to take this one back," Sasori stated in a low tone of his voice.

"Master, this'll probably make you angry, but I'll handle him for sure, hm..." Deidara volunteered with a smirk.

"The assignment is one person to one beast. Don't push it, Deidara," Sasori informed lightly.

"If an artist doesn't get high levels of inspiration, his sentiments are dulled. It's said that the Nine-tails jinchuriki is considerably strong," Deidara explained.

"What? You call those explosions fine art? Fine are is something wonderful that's left long into the future. Eternal beauty," Sasori described in his own point of view.

"They involve the same skilled labor. I respect you, but fine art is the beauty of that single fleeting moment of explosion," Deidara retorted back.

Sakura was staring at the two pair of figures, arguing with each other and asks in confusion. "What... What kind of people are these?"

Naruto, on the other hand, pulled out a scroll out of his pouch and summoned a big shuriken and grabbed onto it as he threw it towards them. However, Sasori's puppet tail deflected it like it was not a big deal.

"Deidara, you little shit... Are you trying to piss me off?"

"Well, then. I was right when I said it'd probably make you angry, mm?!"

 _"Without even glancing at the shuriken, he did it..." Sakura was shocked at how very skilled he is._

 _"Indeed, he handles his puppets just like he did a long time ago..." Chio said thoughtfully in mind._

"My fine art is explosions. Completely different to your little puppet show!" Deidara exclaimed in enthusiastically. His pet white bird started to swallow Gaara's body inside its stomach and he landed on top of its back as he was flying out of the cave swiftly away, saying. "See you, master."

Naruto got furious by this as he started to chase after them and shouted. "What the hell!"

 _"Tch, this boy never stops, does he?" Kakashi rushed out and followed along, leaving an instruction._ "Alright, we will handle that guy outside. Sakura and Chio, take care of this one, but until Team Gai gets back, try not to overdo it."

"Got it!" Sakura understood this firmly. She looked at Sasori calmly, but her heartbeat says a lot differently.

 _"Damn... this guy's seems very tough and secretive. How odd-looking is he, her inner self said in her mind nervously._

 _"Yeah. I know. But we can beat him," the pink-haired kunoichi noted determinedly._

 _"You're right. Just in case if we might get attack twice, I can tell you what we need to do," her inner self reminded._

 _"Okay.." Sakura's eyes narrowed slightly as she was trying to figure out what the enemy's moves are._

"Young lady, do not be afraid," Chio voiced out comfortingly and pulls out several kunais out of her cloak. "Stay behind me!"

She threw them consistently without breaking an eye contact with Sasori, who deflected the weapons in a quick swing using his puppet's tail.

"I can tell that it's not his real body. But where is it then? Don't puppeteers control them using threads from behind?" The pink-haired kunoichi questioned in suspicion.

"His real body is on the inside," Chio answered simply and continued on. "Because they're open to attack when controlling their puppets, the puppeteers are weak in close combat. So, that puppet circumvents that weakness. The puppet becomes armor and it also becomes a weapon. That is Sasori's favorite puppet, Hiruko. I know it well."

"Then, what should we do?

"At any rate, it's going to be troublesome. First off, we have to get Sasori out of Hiruko if we want to be able to do anything. The most terrifying thing about the puppets are the unpredictable 'traps' mechanisms that can launch attacks from anywhere," Chio instructed logically.

"But you know that puppet's mechanisms well. We have an advantage there, don't we?" Sakura glanced at the elderly woman with a hopeful smile.

"Mmm... That's why I was thinking I could handle him by myself at the very beginning. But it doesn't seem like it," Chio muttered quietly.

"What do you mean?" Sakura was puzzled.

"The shape's slightly different to the Hiruko I knew a long ago. Firstly, that shell on his back wasn't there before and that must have strengthened his defense. I've also never seen that left hand before. Furthermore, he might have redesigned his most important traps," the elderly woman explained.

"What should we do?"

"To defeat Sasori, first we have to take out Hiruko, the puppet. But I definitely don't have the power needed to destroy it. So Sakura... You have it. The superhuman strength you got directly from Tsunade," Chio pointed out truthfully, much to the pink-haired kunoichi's surprise. "Listen well, young lady. I'm not going to repeat myself twice. First, you have to get close to him and smash the puppet. But to do that... You must avoid all of the traps."

Sakura clenched her fist tightly, saying. "They're poisonous, right?"

"Indeed. Even a slight scratch can be a fatal wound. To avoid the attacks, you have to know the ins and outs of the traps set in the master craftsman's puppet and have the ability to react to the situation and avoid an attack in an instant," the elderly woman described.

"Knowledge of traps... Instant reaction... I don't have either of those," Sakura looked down in thought.

"Of course. For those, you need a lot of fighting experience," Chio chirped.

"In that case, how..." the pink-haired kunoichi frowned a little in concern for her.

"What do I look like to you? Just a helpless old hag?" The elderly woman smirked and slowly took off her hat from her head, which Sakura smiled at how confident she is. "Leave it to me. That's why I'm here. His battle experience pales compared to mine. Plus the first move has been made. Listen to me, together we will defeat him."

"Alright. Let's go for it!" The pink-haired kunoichi said with certainty.

"So you're finally ready? I'm sure you know I don't like to be kept waiting," Sasori grumbled in a monotonic voice from the puppet.

"Relax... We'll kill you quickly!" Chio declared with no doubt when her and Sakura started to run against him.

Sasori was shooting sharp needles out of his puppet's mouth while they were both dodging carefully until there's nothing left. But he launched a small rocket, containing extra needles that shoots out towards them. Yet, he missed his attacks again, much to his annoyance.

"Ugh... Damn that old hag and that girl. Well, they won't survive that long..." He growled as he quickly swing the puppet's tail towards the pink-haired kunoichi, dashing forward and throwing a kunai at his direction.

Sakura paused and glared at the point of his puppet's tail.

"What...?! Someone stopped it. Of course, Chio!" Sasori guessed.

"Now, Sakura!" Chio signaled with a cry.

"Right!" Sakura exclaimed strongly as she uses the amount of her chakra to release her super human strength with one punch breaking through the puppet's body. She was panting heavily and noticed that the Akatsuki member's black-hooded figure swiftly moved away and stood in a distance from them. _"Is that his real body?!"_

"Ah. So you've finally come out, eh? Come now, let me take a good look at you. I've come all this way to see you," Chio said giddily and continued on sternly. "It's been twenty years. I want to see my grandson's face."

The black-hooded Sasori pulled out the invisible chakra strings to control the beheaded puppet to spit out another extra needles once again. But the elderly woman made Sakura dodged the aim.

"Of course. That's my grandmother as always. No wonder, even that little girl would be able to avoid my traps. You saw all of them, but you used chakra threads from the puppet jutsu to control the little girl," Sasori explained knowingly. "Furthermore, you even cleverly put chakra threads on Hiruko's tail. Though, I only noticed that when the tail's movements were stopped. Wasn't it when you attacked with the kunai at the beginning? The chakra threads attached to the kunai switched over to the tail when they hit it."

"Indeed. Even though, I was supressing the chakra as much as possible so it was invisible, you worked it out well," Chio agreed impressively.

"Well, absolutely. Who was it who taught me to play with puppets? No one else but you," Sasori pointed out honestly.

"Yes. We're done playing for today. I don't know how right you are," Chio murmured softly.

Sasori pulled out his black hood cloak, dropping it onto the ground as he revealed his true face with a wicked smile. "Well... Do you really think it will be that easy? Granny Chio..."

The two kunoichis was astonished to see him in an odd state. On the other hand, the elderly woman couldn't believed that his grandson looks exactly the same as before.

"Lady Chio, this is Sasori?!" Sakura asked in confusion.

"The same as long ago... He hasn't aged at all," the elderly woman mumbled.

"I'll show you what I brought along. Killing him for my collection gave me a hard time, indeed," Sasori pulled out a scroll right in front of them that summons a different puppet. "That's why I like him the best."

"That's... couldn't be..." Chio was speechless at that moment.

"What? What is it?!" Sakura asked worriedly.

"It's him... It's the third Kazekage," Chio stated when she noticed that the strongest leader of the sand village has become a puppet.

"What do you think? Doesn't it take you back to the old days, Granny Chio?" Sasori said rhetorically in delight.

"Sasori... You!" Chio was angered by this.

"Mmm. For a retired old woman near death, you're still quite good," Sasori complimented.

"Even retired and near death, I'll still take action. I've too many regrets to die yet," Chio stated and continued on. "My grandson, you've not only fallen to the level of a mere criminal, but you've betrayed your village and gone after the Kazekage three times."

"Three times...?" Sakura repeated in curiosity.

"It was Orochimaru who killed the fourth Kazekage, Gaara's father. But it was this one who guided him and this time with Gaara. Also, even the third," Chio accused him for his intentions of being involved with the organization.

"Hey, hey, I don't know about the Fourth. It was my subordinate who did it. Indeed, I was originally partnered with Orochimaru in the Akatsuki, so we did many things," Sasori mentioned it.

Sakura narrowed her eyes in realization as she remembers the face of the enemy and her beloved friend, Sasuke. She spoke slowly to emphasize her anger. "You... You know about Orochimaru."

Sasori looked at the pink-haired kunoichi in amusement. "Well, let's get going." He suddenly swung his puppet rapidly to attack Sakura upfront, whereas Chio pulls the strings to control her body, avoiding the hit. He activated multiple arms of his puppet, which completely trapped the pink-haired kunoichi around. With a single flick, the purple gas was starting to leak out in a hiss.

"Sakura! Don't take a single breath!" Chio yelled out loudly with a warning.

"Toxic?!" The pink-haired kunoichi questioned.

Chio kept pulling the strings that were attached to Sakura to move out of the trap. Unfortunately, Sasori released two set of strings, extending towards Sakura, then tightly wrapped around her body.

"Those kunai knives are attached to the ropes. If you don't avoid them, you can't get away," he smirked haughtily.

 _"I promised Naruto... I said that this time, we'd be fighting together. I swore that this time, I'd protect the both of them," the pink-haired kunoichi closed her eyes for a moment, not having a single breath out. "I can't let it end here!"_

Chio was running in a fast pace, exclaiming. "Sakura! Wait for me!"

Once the pink-haired kunoichi pulled out a kunai with a bomb tag, she threw it across the area, creating an explosion in which blew off the poison gas away. Luckily, Sakura freed herself from the ropes and was caught by Chio's grasp.

The elderly woman tapped the girl's back in order to breathe properly. _"This young lady... with the blast from the explosion, she blew away those poison fumes. She did that to herself, to escape from the trap. That's crazy."_

"Aha..." Sasori calmly looked at Sakura in surprise of her lively presence.

The pink-haired kunoichi, on the other hand, glared at him, saying in furious anger. "You... I'll get you! Even if you blow off my arms and legs, if I take in your poison and it paralyzed me, I'll get you, I swear it! No matter how much you resist, no matter what you do! I'll beat you half to death, and make you talk about Orochimaru!"

Sasori ignored her speech as he continued on to fire several kunai knives toward their direction. But Chio deflected them, summoning two puppets in front of them.

"You think men stop to listen when a woman's talking?!" The elderly woman stated rhetorically.

"Ah... Them..." Sasori recognized them dully.

"Yes, the first puppets you constructed," Chio pointed out truthfully. "Your mother and father."

"What is it you plan to do with those things? They're puppets I created. I know all of their secrets. This is pointless," Sasori muttered in irritation. "A puppeteer without a puppet is just a regular person, eh?"

All of a sudden, his puppet revealed its own wings, flying to attack them in full force, much to Sakura's astonishment.

"Even for someone like me, the situation seems hopeless. Sakura, you must get away!" Chio informed strictly.

Sakura stood frozen and her eyes began to narrow determinedly. _"What I can do now is..."_ She thought of an idea, which is a good one. "Lady Chio... Please use me!"

The elderly woman was shocked by this and nodded in approval. "I am only one-armed now. I cannot support you as much as before."

"That's fine. I may not have amazing weapons in me like puppet, but I can do so much more..." Sakura stated deeply.

Once the huge black rectangular block that prevents her to charge at him, the pink-haired kunoichi clenched her fist tightly as she punch all the way to move it across the walls. "Gyaaahhhh!"

 _"This girl..." Sasori thought as he dodged away from her attack._

"I'm not done yet!" Sakura was panting heavily with out of breath slowly and take a moment to find out his motives.

"And you call yourself a girl with that unnatural strength?" Sasori remarked in disbelief.

 _"This is some girl. In this small amount of time, she's already beginning to see through Sasori's attack pattern. So that even without my assistance, she can do it. A girl like this. Tsunade, you have a good apprentice, indeed," Chio said in mind impressively when she looked at the pink-haired kunoichi with admiration._

Sakura began to look back on her training with Tsunade after learning a few mistakes she made back then.

 _FLASHBACK_ :

 _"Listen Sakura, to a medical ninja, attacking comes second. You understand why?" the 5th Hokage lectured._

 _"Yes, the medical ninja acts as a support for the team. They should put medical support for the team first before attacking," Sakura answered._

 _"Wrong!" Tsunade corrected, much to Sakura's frown._

 _"Huh?!" The pink-haired kunoichi was puzzled in confusion._

 _"The medical ninja should never be hit by the enemy's attacks. When you face an opponent's attack, evasion is the first priority," Tsunade explained._

 _"Why?" Sakura asked._

 _"If the medical ninja were to die, who's there to treat the team members? Now, I'm going to go all out and attack you. The training is to avoid all of my attack. I will not hold back," Tsunade instructed carefully._

 _END OF FLASHBACK_

Sakura kept her eyes focused sharply at Sasori, thinking a different strategy in her mind. _"Before he attacks, the user always moves his fingers. That's the weakness of puppeteers... and from the pattern of his hand and arm movements, I can start to tell the direction of his attack..."_

 _"Hmm. She's constantly watching me. At this rate, it'll take time. I'll have to use a bit of chakra, but I'll finish it with that," Sasori thought as he pulled the strings to control the blocks, emerging them together using an Iron Sand world model jutsu._

 _"Oh no!" Chio said as she quickly moved out of the harm's way._

 _"It's going everywhere!" Sakura exclaimed._

A sound of a loud crash hit the ground, Chio woke up and noticed that Sakura was trapped between the black iron thorns.

"Sakura!" The elderly woman called out. "Are you alright, dear?!"

The pink-haired kunoichi was panting again as she was holding herself from collapsing. Every scratches had sliced her arms and legs that goes beneath her skin.

 _"Even a scratch can become a fatal wound," Chio said in mind pitifully. "No... She got a..."_

The pink-haired kunoichi started to sway and began to fall down on the ground.

"Heh. That's not what I plan to do," Sasori said maliciously as his puppet activated a sword blade, striking towards where Sakura was lying.

However, the pink-haired kunoichi got up just in time to demolish the Kazekage puppet after she picked up on its movements. She then made her way to check up on Chio's well being and performed a healing technique.

"Sakura, my left hand is fine now," the elderly woman said.

The pink-haired kunoichi kept panting a lot out of exhaustion, which Chio noticed about her.

 _"Her strength, evasion, and healing wounds has definitely used up a lot of chakra. She should already be at her limit, but..."_

"There's no time to waste... Can you move now, lady Chio?" Sakura asked.

Sasori glared at her and thought. _"How can she even move? She should have been caught by my poison. When mixing an antidote, not even a hairline mistake is allowed. Even I, who made the poison, would need a detailed recipe of the mixture proportions. This girl's a medical ninja too."_ When he was watching her healing herself, there was something that he recognized. _"No way... she didn't. Hmph. I'll acknowledge that you're a brat to be reckoned with and took out the third Kazekage. At this point, using another human puppet would be useless. Since the trouble I had getting into Akatsuki, I wonder when it was."_

With the loss of the Kazekage puppet, Sasori revealed the reason behind his young look: his own human puppet body, which itself was fitted with numerous weapons and traps laced with poison.

Sakura was startled by true form in horror, asking quietly. "Wha-what is that?"

"Since he was separated from me, he has not aged. He is just like he was a long before," Chio answered truthfully.

"That is why. It's been a while, Granny Chio," Sasori pointed out.

"He made himself into a human puppet," Sakura murmured.

Sasori began to function his puppet body as a machine and prepared himself to attack them. "What's wrong?"

 _"Has it stopped?" Chio and Sakura thought in unison._

 _S_ asori then releases the wire out of his body with a sharp blade, piercing through Sakura's side of her stomach until it landed on rocks. He went straight to fly towards Chio.

The pink-haired kunoichi glanced at them and grabbed on the wire tightly as she was pulling Sasori to her.

He tried to attack his grandma with a spinning blade, but thankfully Sakura  
eventually managed to break apart his puppet body with a powerful punch.

Though, she missed his core. Sakura looked over her shoulder and did not noticed that Sasori was allowing him to reassemble himself.

"Haha... We did it, lady Chio. We did it!" The pink-haired kunoichi chuckled slightly.

"Sakura..." Chio trailed off of her words when they both heard Sasori.

Chiyo then brought out her own in an attempt to level the playing field. She assembled her right arm, saying. "This is a jutsu that I forbade myself. I thought I'd never use it again, but it seems that wasn't to be. I'll put an end to this here." She pulled out a scroll that summons ten puppets around her.

"Impressive, Granny. They say that the strength of a puppeteer is measured by the amount of puppets they use," Sasori quoted.

"So many... Amazing," Sakura was mesmerized.

"Chio's great technique 'finger by finger' is a mechanism that is said to have taken down an entire castle. It's a 'Secret white technique. The very first user of Kugutsu jutsu, Enzaemon's ten masterpieces. That is considerable amount of puppets, but with this I took down a country," Sasori used his own technique that allows him to control ten times as many puppets as Chiyo.

Sakura gaped her mouth open in disbelief at how much of them he has.

"How I'll explain this. How long it took me to take down a little girl and an old hag that I even had to take out my last trick," Sasori stared at them deadly.

On the other hand, Chio instructed Sakura simply. "The antidote has already worn off. You don't need to do anything, dear."

The pink-haired kunoichi glanced at her and smiled warmly with a curt nod. She looked at Sasori, saying. "You already know, don't you? My character?"

"Indeed. You got your personality from Tsunade too. But this will be the final act. Are you prepared?" Sasori asked wickedly.

"Yes!" Sakura declared.

Since Chiyo's puppets were designed to work together, a trait lacking with all of Sasori's puppets, her puppets fared far better than his, although they were eventually overwhelmed by Sasori's sheer numbers.

Chio's white puppets and Sasori's black puppets are battling against each other equally, using the amount of sword techniques slashing each other and off their opponents.

Sakura continuously fights off the enemy's puppets one by one with every bit amount of physical strength that she got. Because of that, her skills had increased, including her stamina. She punches a few of the puppets' heads, breaking into pieces.

During the battle, Chiyo attempted to Sasori's chakra with a special orb from one of her puppets, but missed his core — the only living part of his body and the source of his chakra — and only trapped his puppet body.

 _"There are too many!" Chio noted in mind and said out loud._ "Sakura, go for Sasori. I will handle the rest."

"Okay!" Sakura agreed.

"Use that!" Chio pointed at the ball that the puppet had thrown.

Sakura grabbed it immediately and went straight ahead to Sasori. "This is it!" She exclaimed and placed the seal onto his original body to a wall.  
The pink-haired kunoichi panted heavily in relief that it was finally over.

"You cannot move. Sasori, that sealing jutsu completely possesses all chakra. You can't even use a chakra thread," Chio concluded until one of the puppets rose up in unexpected surprise attack.

"Lady Chio!" Sakura's eyes widened in shock as she noticed that Sasori was about to kill his grandma behind.  
After she rushed on for her aid, Sakura took the sword's attack from Sasori for Chio.

"No!" The elderly woman looked over her shoulder.

Sasori's katana pierced Sakura's abdomen, and since the blade itself was coated in poison. A little blood dripped down from her mouth in the very corner of her lips, yet she still managed to stood her ground.

"He. Now, you would either succumb to the poison or bleed to death," Sasori stated emotionlessly.

Chio quickly shot a needle on Sakura's left leg that contains an antidote.

As Sasori prepared to attack again, it gave Chio a chance to use Mother and Father to stab him through his core in the form of an embrace.

"A puppet body, after all, is just a regular puppet. Your real body is that chest part that uses chakra. Heh..." Sasori smirked at that.

Sakura began to fall unconsciously with the sword still pierced onto her abdomen as she coughed up blood.

"Sakura!" Chio crawled over to her and carefully pulled out the weapon, along with a healing jutsu, which made her grunted in pain. _"At any rate, while I am closing up the wound. I must take out this..."_

 _Sakura closed her eyes for a moment and said the first thing in her mind. "Gaara..." She then gazed over at her wrist when she noticed that the sand bracelet is not there anymore._

"Hm... I have already stopped emergency medical treatment. What am I doing now is not medical ninjutsu. I am giving my own life energy transfer," Chio announced and continued on. "In the beginning, it was for you, Sasori. I alone spent many years working out this jutsu for you. With this, I can even give life to a puppet. In exchange for using up the user's life. But now... It is already a dream that cannot be realized."

"Pathetic. When did you start getting senile, Granny?" Sasori said smirking.

The pink-haired kunoichi fluttered her eyes open and noticed the elderly woman beside her.

"Sakura. Are you alright?"

"Yes."

"Hm. That's odd. From that tensei ninjutsu, doesn't the jutsu user die from giving up their life to a dead person?" Sasori questioned.

"Sakura received a fatal wound, bur she didn't die. So I also came to this level," Chio answered.

"Well, that's a pity," Sasori insulted.

Sakura took an action against him with an angry punch, saying. "Have you no remorse?!"

Sasori's eyes stared at her at the very corner and replied. "Give it up. This body feels no pain. If all you do is hit me, your fist is all that will hurt."

"That's enough, Sakura. What made Sasori this way is the terrible customs and the teachings of the sand," Chio noted formally.

"Want to try become like this too? If you do, then you'll probably get what I'm saying. An undecaying body like this is a puppet body that can be rebuilt over and over. Unfettered by a mortal lifespan. I can just make as many people as I want out of puppets. If I want them... I don't just add for the sake of numbers. Collections are about equality," Sasori explained in amusement.

Sakura narrowed her eyes in fury, interrogating. "What the hell are you?!"

"If I must say. Maybe a person who couldn't become a puppet. I am like one, but an incomplete puppet with a core of my real body. Not human, not puppet. I won't be able to move for much longer. Before that, I'll do something pointless for you. A reward for defeating me," Sasori said quietly and continued on to inform the pink-haired kunoichi about Orochimaru's whereabouts and his connections to Sasuke. When Sasori died, Chio implied that Sasori could have avoided her last attack, but for some reason he chose not to.

Chio suddenly collapsed and began to pant involuntarily due to the poison.

"Ah! Lady Chio! Quickly, let's go back to the village! I'll make a new antidote right away," Sakura said urgently.

"No..." The elderly woman refused.

"But why? We've done what we had to do! If we don't get back and make an antidote, your wounds will get severe," Sakura reminded.

"You're right. More importantly, there is still something I must do..." Chio said as she sat up.

Sakura came to a realization as her heart began to beat faster than usual. "No... Gaara..."


	8. When the Star Falls

**There will be some flashbacks here between Gaara and Sakura. It will be a bit more intense and emotional. You can watch other Gaara Sakura AMVS on youtube.**

 **Anyways, please read & review! :)**

* * *

Around the middle of the forest trees lies beneath the two leaf shinobi attempting to track down after Deidara, who has taken Gaara's body, along with him.

 _"That kid suddenly got quiet. What's he up to, hmm?" The_ _Akatsuki_ _member asked himself curiously in mind._

"Kakashi-sensei... Not yet?!" Naruto questioned eagerly.

"Be patient. I don't have as much chakra as you. It takes me a little longer, but I'm just about ready. Let's go, Naruto!" Kakashi commanded as he activated his new sharingan with his left eye.

"Is that what you were talking about before?" The blonde-haired ninja murmured softly while glancing at him.

"Yup. A new one," he answered.

Naruto narrowed his eyes at his own thoughts of saving after his dear friend, saying. "Kakashi-sensei, it's okay if you can't... I'll finish this off!"

"Sure. If you get the chance," Kakashi said cheerily.

"Yeah!" The blonde-haired ninja was determined.

Then after Kakashi uses his Mangekyo Sharingan to get inside Deidara's right arm, it gradually cuts off with a small blood splattered down onto the ground. The Akatsuki member was grunting in pain when he lost his part of the body.

 _"I missed... I cannot properly control the position and size of the barrier space," the white-haired copy ninja said in mind as he was experiencing headache from using his_ _sharingan_ _recently._

On the other hand, Naruto and his shadow clone appeared out of nowhere to attack Deidara with his Rasengan Spiral Chakra sphere technique.

Although, he decapitated the white bird's head off, Naruto still manages to charge it with his Ninja art of the shadow doppelganger. Several of his shadow clones carefully grabbed onto the bird's head as they all landed safely on the tree branch.

"Gaara!" One of the clone ninjas called out desperately.

"Kakashi-sensei! Are you alright?!" Naruto hopped on next to him in concern.

As the shadow clones were ripping off the bird's head into pieces, they suddenly began to become dismayed of finding out that Gaara's body wasn't entirely moving at all. Not even waking up, whereas Naruto made another extra few shadow clones to beat up Deidara brutally with furious anger. They clutched his body roughly and threw him completely against the rock wall.

Without even stopping himself from killing off Deidara's body with Rasengan, Kakashi noticed that it was only a clay substitution.

 _"So that's what_ _Jiraiya_ _was talking about," he squinted his eyes further to also see that Naruto's body transforming himself into the Nine-tails form._

 _"What's that? Is that the_ _jinchuriki_ _?"_ _Deidara_ _asked blankly in mind._

Naruto, on the contrary, was looking for the Akatsuki member's whereabouts.

Kakashi remembered the time when Jiraiya gave him a seal paper that resists the Nine-tails from forming out of Naruto's body. He quickly hurried over to Naruto and put the seal in front of his headband, which slowly dissolves the Nine-tails chakra out in the process. "Are you alright, kiddo?!"

"Yeah..." he answered tiredly.

 _"What did_ _Jiraiya_ _see?"_ _Kakashi_ _wondered._

"Hey! We finally caught up with you!" A familiar voice called out to them in gladness.

"Sakura! Lady Chio! How did you know we were here?" Kakashi asked in surprise.

"Well, we saw the enemy fly over," The pink-haired kunoichi noted.

"It seems as though you are having some trouble over here," the elderly woman stated sternly.

"Hey... Sakura. You guys did it..." Naruto mumbled with appreciation.

"Yes, but... where's Gaara?!" The pink-haired kunoichi asked worriedly.

Naruto glanced at his two shadow clones bringing Gaara right in front of them.

Sakura turned around as she noticed him in his unconscious state. Her heartbeat was still pounding rapidly out of her chest until Guy's team had arrived just in time to spot Deidara's hiding near them.

"Good job, Neji," Guy smirked.

Team Kakashi heard the background noises of kunais and shurikens making exchanges with each other as Team Guy were fighting against Deidara, who currently chomped off the clay off of the bird.

"Everyone, be careful! He uses bombs to attack from a distance!" Kakashi warned out loud.

Deidara stood up quickly and claimed evilly. "Let me show you my ultimate art. It's an explosion!"

Neji saw that all the Akatsuki member's chakra is concentrating on one point of his body turning into a huge plump of a flesh that will obliterate the forest trees. "Everyone, get the hell out of here now!"

Sakura, Naruto and the others were startled by the warning Neji instructed. Luckily, Kakashi uses his Mangekyo Sharingan to transport Deidara, including the bomb explosion that was almost made in the forest. Nobody got severely wounded from the Akatsuki member's attack as they let him escape for now.

Sakura was stunned to witnessed what had happened with Kakashi's power while holding Chio for support with a question. "What on earth did you do?"

"I teleported him and the bomb to another space," Kakashi huffed in exhaustion and asked. "Never mind that. Is everyone okay?"

Naruto's shadow clones hovered down onto the ground to show Gaara in front of them, much to the others' astonishment. Sakura looked over behind them and knows how she can wake her best friend from his unconsciousness.

Later on in the afternoon, everyone was standing in the green fields of grass as the wind was blowing gently.

The pink-haired kunoichi was still attempting to use her healing jutsu on Gaara's body as she was narrowing her eyes in concentration. _"Come on... Wake up! Damn it all!"_ She clenched her teeth tightly as the sweat drops was forming out of her face and neck.

Kakashi spoke out quietly. "Sakura... You might just need to save up your chakra. You don't want to pass out-"

"I don't care!" She yelled out in frustration.

Lee, Neji and Tenten was looking between her and Gaara pitifully and did not want to say any word whatsoever, regards to what state he is currently in right now.

Naruto, on the other hand, was waiting for the response of their friend and called out. "Sakura!"

"Wait! Alright?! I'm doing the best I can. He will wake up for sure! I promise you all," the pink-haired kunoichi began to stutter nervously and was smiling in denial at them.

"Young lady... I'm very certain that he's not alive no more..." Chio said truthfully.

"He's gone..." Kakashi muttered quietly.

Naruto's eyes widened in disbelief and shock at that. His hands made his fists formed tightly in anger.

Sakura looked behind her shoulder, then gazed slowly at the sight of Gaara's dead body right in front of her. Her heart suddenly dropped and her breathing was puffing out steadily, whereas her hands was starting to grasp onto his light purple vest. The expression that she has on her face is like as if she already lost her soul and a sense of hope. A drop of tears fell from her green eyes as they hit onto Gaara's face. She started to muffle cry out in agony onto his body with her arms covering his dead body. "Why...?! I can't lose him..."

 _THE FIRST FLASHBACK:_

 _"Does my forehead look big to you? I feel like all those kids will not stop making fun of me," A young Sakura frowned sadly at the small mirror that Temari gave her. She was making a hair bangs in front of her head as she looked back and forth of herself._

 _"What do you mean? It's not. I think it's beautiful. You don't need to cover them up," young Gaara pointed out wisely._

 _"But... I just feel a little insecure. That's all," the pink-haired girl pouted when she looked away from him._

 _"Hey. Don't be. I know it's difficult for you to feel confident about yourself. Uncle Yashamaru once said that, 'if anyone highly disrespects you, then it's best to walk away and not fight back.' That's what he taught me," the red-haired boy stated from what he remembered._

 _"What does that have to do with my physical appearance?" Young Sakura asked confusedly._

 _"Well, you see. Kids always target the ones who are better than them, smart than them, beautiful than them, and good than them. For me, they may treat me like a monster but at least I have a few people who acknowledge me now. So don't worry about what you look like, the most important part is what comes from the inside," young Gaara explained with a warm smile as he pointed his heart._

 _The pink-haired girl nodded in agreement with her lips curled happily at him after putting down the mirror beside her. "Right."_

 _The red-haired boy gave her a curt nod as they watched the sunset together on top of the building roof._

 _END OF FLASHBACK_

 _THE SECOND FLASHBACK:_

 _Retrieving Sasuke was never an easy mission as everyone thought it would. It literally broke Sakura and Naruto's hearts because of how their teammate made his own choice of taking revenge on his older brother, Itachi._

 _Gaara knew about their story as he noticed that Sakura was hiding the pain that she's still in. The red-haired ninja said in realization. "Oh... I forgot to tell you something important."_

 _"Hehe. I was hoping you would remember it. Okay, go on," Sakura encouraged._

 _"Recently, I was thinking about what I should do when I grow up and you know what I've dreamed of becoming? I want to be the new Kazekage in my village since I want to protect them, even at all times. After my father got murdered, I couldn't help but feel emptiness. He may not be a great parent, but he still managed to do what's best for me and my siblings. So my desire is to be able to share the suffering with others and the joy that they bring," Gaara explains it deeply as Sakura stares at him in amazement and continues to listen to him. "That's my goal. I want to be acknowledge by people more than just perceiving me as a monster... I want to do things right. I may not be where I want to be right now. But someday, I'll get there eventually when that time comes."_

 _"Gaara... I'm happy for you," the pink-haired kunoichi's eyes glistened in tears when she approached him and gave him a warm hug, much to his surprise._

 _The red-headed ninja reciprocated as he wrapped his arms around her waist, saying. "Thank you..."_

 _END OF THE SECOND FLASHBACK_

 _THIRD FLASHBACK:_

 _"Congratulations for becoming the fifth Kazekage of the hidden sand village," Sakura cheered as she brought a medium-sized lavender gift box, handing it to him as a surprise._

 _Gaara looked at her and chuckled. "Thank you, Sakura. But really, you don't need to."_

 _"Hm? Why not? You don't like it..." The pink-haired kunoichi murmured softly as her smile faltered a little._

 _"No. It's not that. I do appreciate it. It's just I prefer to see more of a presence," the red-haired Kazekage stated._

 _"Presence? Like what?" Sakura asked in puzzlement._

 _"You... and the others," he answered with a wholehearted smile._

 _The pink-haired kunoichi's cheeks tinged slightly in pink and said. "Oh... Thanks."_

 _"Although, I don't mind the gifts that our friends have given me. I guess I have to live with that," Gaara said as he glanced over the clear blue sky and began to contemplate over his thoughts in mind._

 _Sakura walked up next to him closely and asked softly. "What are you wishing for?"_

 _"More family, more friends, and..." Gaara looked at his left side of the shoulder, staring at the beautiful green pupils that Sakura holds so preciously. He paused at his words without saying what he truly wanted to say._

 _"What?" The pink-haired kunoichi smiled and giggled cheekily._

 _"More..." Gaara's eyes was glistening nervously at the sight of her and was about to finish his sentence._

 _"Heeyy! Whatcha' guys doin' up there, huh?" A familiar voice slurred out in a tease._

 _"Kankuro, leave them alone," a girl's voice scolded him._

 _"Come on, Temari. I was only joking," he tried to stifle his laughter._

 _"Oh yeah, totally," she rolled her eyes sarcastically with her arms crossed, then informs the two. "So guys, our dinner with the others will be held downstairs. Gaara, the fifth hokage wants to speak with you privately soon."_

 _"Lady Tsunade? What for?" Sakura asked blankly._

 _"Hmm. Alright," Gaara nodded in approval._

 _"Right. Now that's settled. We will be waiting for you guys. Let's go, Kankuro," Temari ordered as she looked at him in annoyance._

 _Kankuro whistled and said with his arms behind his head. "I think I would like to stay here for a bit to see-"_

 _Temari whacked him with her fan, lecturing. "Ugh! Don't be such a nosy into other people's business. Jeez, are you always this eavesdropper?"_

 _As the two siblings were heading down the top of the roof, Gaara and Sakura were giggling and chuckling amongst themselves_.

 _"Ah... The classic old Temari and Kankuro_ _. I miss that sometimes when you three are not here_ _," the pink-haired kunoichi_ _sighed dreamily and frowned when she began to look away._

 _Gaara places his hand onto hers on top of the railing and said. "We're here now, right? I know that, as a Kazekage, I have a lot of duties to fulfill and protect many people in our village. I'm very thankful for this opportunity that has been offered to me. Now I do not have to be scared of anything anymore, nor hurt anyone at this time."_

 _Sakura stared at him proudly, not having to say any words to him._

 _"That's why I'm doing everything I can to help the people I care and that I..." The red-haired Kazekage trailed off of his words._

 _"Love?" Sakura guessed correctly and giggled._

 _"Uh... Yeah..." Gaara stared at her intensely again._

 _Then, they both looked at the sky together until the pink-haired kunoichi lay her head against his shoulder_.

 _Gaara's heart was skipping fast, but he remained calm when he felt light waves rushing in through his mind. He was starting to have a good feeling about the moment right now, so he decided to admit it._

 _"I've never expected this. However, I'm very happy..." he expressed shyly._

 _Sakura closed her eyes for a moment and giggled in adoration. "Me too!"_

 _END OF THIRD FLASHBACK_

 _FINAL FLASHBACK_

 _During the dinner celebration, everyone at the table were laughing, cheering, and chattering with the red-haired Kazekage. They've been asking him some questions based on his life._

 _"So Gaara, what's it like to be the leader of your village?" Kiba asked grinning._

 _"Yeah! Anyone praising you? You've finally managed to earn the highest title, now that you achieved your dream. A lot of strength and good will you put yourself in," Lee bowed his head down and saluted as usual._

 _"Yes, indeed," the red-haired Kazekage agreed._

 _"Gaara has gone through a lot of experiences and hardships in his life. But here he is. My little brother has made it," Kankuro wrapped his left arm around Gaara's shoulder when everyone was clapping._

 _"Man, there aren't any barbecues left. I'm starving!" Choji groaned sadly as he rubbed his stomach._

 _"Jeez. Will you relax? The food will be here soon, so quit whining," Ino placed her hand upon her cheek, rolling her eyes in exasperation, then took a sip of her drink. On the other hand, a few of them had laughed at that._

 _"Are you always that hungry?" Temari asked chuckling._

 _"Yep. That's Choji for you. If you ever call him the word 'fat,' he will certainly burst out in rage," Shikamaru pointed out quietly while covering the side of his mouth with his hand._

 _"Oh..." Kankuro and Temari understood this in unison._

 _"Any news from Sasuke?" Gaara asked blankly._

 _"Well, not really However, from what I've heard from Lady Tsunade, it seems that the ANBU Black Ops are doing their best to locate his current whereabouts," Neji said in speculation._

 _"Naruto has been training a lot these days with one of the legendary sanins; Jiraiya. He may even return back here as stronger than before," Shino predicted correctly, pushing his sunglasses upward his nose._

 _"Yeah. I can't wait until he gets back because he and I are going to fight one on one. Now, that is the deal," Kiba boasted proudly in a huff as his dog, Akamaru, barked in agreement._

 _"Oh, please. He'll probably beat your ass in just a few seconds. Don't flatter yourself," Tenten noted as a matter-of-fact, which made everyone burst out laughing._

 _"Damn. Even his Rasengan technique will be much more effective than your Fang-Over-Fang," Choji laughed hysterically, pointing his finger at him._

 _Kiba flared his nostrils in annoyance, looking away from them with a pout. "Hmph!"_

 _"Hah. I'm sure when Naruto comes back, he will be even more surprised that all of us have slightly changed, especially, you Gaara," Shikamaru smiled genuinely at him._

 _"What if he and Sasuke all come back? Do you think they will start their feud again once they meet? Think about it. That would be like the worst kinds of war you will see," Kankuro said in suspicion._

 _"I don't think that's possible," Hinata answered without a single stutter._

 _"No. Although, it depends if either the two of them made a contact or an unexpected encounter," Neji said thoughtfully._

 _"Tsk. I don't know. That Uchiha guy has become a total stranger and a nuisance now. Aside from Naruto, he would do anything to bring him back no matter the cost," Kiba whistled when he puts his arms behind his head and leaned back on his seat._

 _Suddenly, the pink-haired kunoichi accidentally cut the skin of her hand and banged her tight fist on the table, flipping the fork and knife all at once until it landed through the lobster, much to everyone's startle._

 _"Sakura..." Lee murmured softly and asked worriedly. "Are you alright?"_

 _The pink-haired kunoichi ignored him, not even trying to answer his questions as she quickly stood up from her chair and stepped outside from All-You-Can-Eat-Buffet restaurant._

 _At the same time, the leaf squad was muttering to each other, whereas Kankuro and Temari silently looked at each other sadly. Gaara, who witnessed the commotion, decided to get up from his seat and go after his best friend._

 _Shikamaru and the others were watching him walk away from their table and knew that he is going to talk to her about the problem she was still having._

 _"I guess mentioning Sasuke really does hit you on the spot, does it?" Shikamaru said rhetorically with a sigh._

 _"No, shit. Even the information about him makes my stomach churn," Kiba remarked and continued on sarcastically._

 _Kankuro narrowed his eyes and rolls them, retorting back defensively. "That was never his intention, though. Don't accuse Gaara like that."_

 _"Guys, come on. Let's not argue in a place here," Tenten frowned as they all stared at the food on the table._

 _Outside the building, Sakura was staring off into space, reflection upon the moments that she has had with her teammates. Her emotions began to stir up and she couldn't help when a single drop of tear fell out from her eyes._

 _"It still pains you," the red-haired Kazekage stated in a low tone of his voice and slowly approach beside her._

 _"Yeah... I'm used to it," the pink-haired kunoichi answered as she carefully wiped her tear._

 _"I'm sorry," Gaara apologized sincerely._

 _"For what?" Sakura asked in puzzlement._

 _"Bringing him up into our conversation earlier. I know that you still love Sasuke since he's always there in your mind and in your heart. He may fallen deeply into darkness and having himself consumed by vengeance, hate, and anger. But in spite of all, he is still a good person because..." the red-haired Kazekage didn't get to finish his sentence when the pink-haired kunoichi wrapped her arms around him, seeking for comfort as she continues to sob. He stares at her painfully when he began to slowly embrace her. From that moment on, they stood frozen on the spot for a few minutes until they broke free from their hug._

 _Sakura sniffed while her tears were still streaming down her face, saying. "I still couldn't handle the fact that he's gone... Without him, I'm always falling apart."_

 _Gaara looked down and brought her face to look in his eyes, replying hopefully. "But Sakura... You have your friends, you have your family. Yes, you have feelings and that will never change. Time is always everything. Treasure it, even in the good and the bad. As your dear friend, I will be right here." He paused when he lifted her wrist gently, pointing directly at her sand bracelet and continued on. "You see this? This is how important you are for all of us. I'm not telling you to give up on Sasuke. But for your sake, I'm telling you to give yourself a break from him... Will you do that? For you?"_

 _Sakura became speechless and nodded silently._

 _"Good..." Gaara's lips curled graciously as he wipes every tear that she was crying for. "It's alright to miss him. It hurts me to see you in pain all the time. I just want you to be happy and I will do everything that I can to help you because I care about you."_

 _The pink-haired kunoichi's eyes was glistening contentedly and said with a sad smile. "Thank you, Gaara. I really appreciate that." She hugged him so tight that she wouldn't let go of her best friend._

 _"No problem," the red-haired Kazekage replied, much to everyone's admiration towards the young two friends._

 _"Awwwwwwww," they delighted in harmony._

 _"Man, I wish I have some girl friend like that. But I only have my mom," Kiba pouted thoughtfully._

 _"Hah. You should be thankful. Appreciate what you have before it all disappears," Shino quoted wisely._

 _"Yeah, he's right. You should love and respect those around you. The ones who will treat you well throughout the rest of your lives," Lee encouraged as he pumped his right fist up._

 _On the other hand, Gaara and Sakura let go of each other as they started to look at each other's eyes._ _The pink-haired kunoichi did not realized how beautiful his green-jaded eyes are, which she has not noticed the kind of person he is._

 _END OF FINAL FLASHBACK_

Back in the present time, everyone around Sakura and Gaara was feeling hopeless and couldn't do nothing to bring him back. It was already too late.

"No... He can't be dead... How could they be so cruel?! After everything that he had gone through, this is the outcome that he gets?! This isn't fair! " The pink-haired kunoichi yelled angrily as she gripped Gaara's purple vest tightly while tears were running down.

Naruto also had a single drop of tear falling out from his eyes, questioning. "Why is it always Gaara? Why did he die like this? Why...? He's the Kazekage..."

"Relax, the two of you," the elderly woman said calmly.

The blonde-haired ninja snapped out vehemently. "Just shut up! If you all shinobi of the sand hadn't put a monster in Gaara, then nothing like this would've happened! Did any of you even try to ask how he truly felt?! It's none other than me and Sakura! What is this 'jinchuriki' anyway?! You just arrogantly made up that word to call them!"

Sakura, on the other hand, has her eyes closed shut as she continues to mourn over the dead body of her best friend.

Naruto continued on while he was crying out. "I couldn't save Sasuke and I couldn't save Gaara... For three years, I trained desperately to reach out. But nothing's changed since then, has it...?"

The others stood in silence and had no words to say about the situation. For Sakura, she always does have something to say.

"Every time, I looked into his eyes... I feel his loneliness. I feel his pain and a loss of loved ones. That is why he needed someone... He needed us. Gaara... please, come back..." The pink-haired kunoichi whispered gently in grief and brushes his red-hair softly through her fingers, smiling miserably. "Please, come back to us... To me... I love you..."

On the contrary, Chio raised her head up, determined enough to help and save Gaara. She quickly walked up towards his body, whereas Sakura was puzzled to know what she is going to do. The elderly woman used a new technique as she placed both of her palms on the red-haired Kazekage.

"Lady Chio, that jutsu is...!" Sakura was astonished when she saw a lot of amount of chakra that was being used.

"What are you trying to do?!" The blonde-haired ninja asked curiously.

Neji was examining her technique, using his Byakugan. _"Medical Ninjutsu?"_

Sakura remembered that moment a while ago when Chio mentioned something about what she still must do. _"So... this is what Lady Chio was talking about... exchanging her own life to him."_

"Is that-?" Guy asked knowingly.

"Yes," Kakashi answered as they both watch the elderly woman do her part.

"What the hell are you doing?!" Naruto asked impatiently.

"She's bringing Gaara back!" Sakura said as her eyes settled upon directly towards Chio's hands, attempting to use all of her chakra to be sustainable for him to wake up.

"It has risks. Risks are great as the reward," Kakashi pointed out.

"Guh. Damn... Not enough chakra!" The elderly woman cursed under her breath.

"Lady Chio, please use mine," the pink-haired kunoichi said desperately.

"Me too! My chakra as well," the blonde-haired ninja said eagerly. "Can you do that, Granny?"

 _The elderly woman stared at the both of them, seeing how much they care for Gaara. "Whether it's the leaf or the sand, to the Naruto and Sakura, I suppose it's all the same." She thought deeply and instructed them._ "Alright, place your hands on top of mine."

They did as they were told to and were waiting patiently to ensure that the jutsu works effectively.

"In this world of shinobi, made by many foolish old people, I'm glad to see that someone such as yourselves has appeared. My past is terrible. Everything I've done has been nothing but one mistake after another. Still, in my very last moments, it looks like I've finally be able to set things right. The leaf and the sand. After all, a woman with a gallant spirit matching any man's is a rarity indeed. Surely you'll become a kunoichi even greater than your master. Finally, this old woman has a request of you. Sakura, Naruto... You are the only people capable of understanding Gaara's suffering. Gaara also understands your sufferings as well. Please, help Gaara for me..." Chio concluded as the three of them closed their eyes to feel the essence of the red-haired Kazekage.

 _A young Sakura was surrounded with many of her loved ones from the leaf village. She then realized that someone else was missing and she know who it was. So she quickly hurried to find her best friend that she was longing after because he was the first person to ever save her from all the bad things._

 _"Gaara!" She called out while she was running._

 _Meanwhile, the red-haired Kazekage was standing in front of his younger self, asking questions to himself. "Who is it? Who are you calling? Whose hand is this? Oh... it's just my hand again. My hand... Me? Who am I? I'm-"_

Suddenly, he felt a hand placed upon his shoulder with a smile, saying. "Gaara!"

That was the moment in time where he finally had his eyes opened to see the new light he was in. He looked behind him and noticed Naruto smiling at him, whereas Sakura was embracing him with her arms wrapped securely around him.

* * *

 _TO BE CONTINUED..._


	9. Welcome back, Lord Kazekage!

**Hey, guys! I hope you enjoy this chapter as I continue to upload more. I know this is going to be a little short since it's almost at the very end of the story. But I'll be writing more GaaSaku stories next year!**

 **Anyways, please read & review! :)**

* * *

"Naruto, Sakura..." the red-haired Kazekage's eyes widened in astonishment when he slowly glances around just to see many people gathering and cheering on for him. "This is..."

"Yeah, everyone is here trying to save you," the blonde-haired ninja said happily.

The pink-haired kunoichi let go of him as she turned around to check up on Chio's pulses. She widened her eyes in shock and closed her eyes calmly.

 _"No..." she said in mind._

"Lord Kazekage, we're glad you're back!" One of the sand jounins praised gleefully.

"Are you alright, sir Gaara?" He asked concernedly.

The red-haired Kazekage was speechless, so he nodded in answer instead.

"There's no way that Gaara-sensei die that easily!" Matsuri pointed out defensively and continue to gush on forward. "Gaara's a real strong and silent type, good-looking and elite."

"Yeah, yeah. But still there's some cuteness about him. Then, he's Kazekage," another brunette kunoichi said dreamily as they both were fangirling.

"Next time for sure, I'll get Gaara out of whatever mess he's in!" Matsuri rushed over to his side eagerly.

"No! Me!" Her brunette kunoichi friend exclaimed, shoving Naruto out of her way.

"Ugh. Yeah. I guess I'm still just a genin..." Naruto mumbled after he landed on the grass with a funny expression.

"Don't feel bad. Women are always weak on their knees for the young, cool elite types," Kankuro chuckled when he knelt down in front of him.

"Well, I remember Shikamaru saying something like that too," Naruto pouted thoughtfully, then both of them had their heads turned on Gaara and the others.

Kankuro stares at the blonde-haired ninja near him as he began to remember the time his younger brother had spoken the words. _"He knew the same pain as me. And he taught me that you can change how you live."_

"Thank you, Naruto."

"Hm. You should be saying that to the old lady, not me... She saved Gaara with her amazing medical ninjutsu," the blonde-haired ninja said softly while glancing at Sakura, who was holding Chio tightly.

"That was no medical ninjutsu, it was a life transfer ninjutsu. Lady Chio is dead," Kankuro confirmed sternly.

"Wha-what are you saying?" Naruto asked confusedly.

"A ninjutsu that restores life in exchange for the user's own," Kankuro explained, much to the others' dismay.

"Yes..." Sakura murmured as she started crying over Chio and holding her gently, whereas Gaara was looking between them sadly.

"Naruto... You really are a mysterious person. For Sakura, she really does have an emotional effect on people," Temari stated as she observed the pink-haired kunoichi genuinely.

Then, the red-haired Kazekage slowly tries to stand up on his own until the blonde-haired ninja gripped beneath his right arm for support. Both of the jinchuriki had approached in front of Sakura and Chio's dead body.

The pink-haired kunoichi's tears were streaming down from her cheeks and looked up to them without saying anything.

"Everyine, let's pray for Lady Chio," Gaara announced gently as they all bowed their heads, giving condolences for her in silence.

The following morning came and the two teams from the leaf village were standing in front of Chio's grave. They had a few good memories with her and they wished they could have had a lot to spend more time with her. Nothing could bring her back to life since the technique that she use highly severe for other shinobi to perform. She was the only person who is capable of exchanging her life to someone else's. She sacrificed herself for the sake of the future generations. Simply, because she cares a lot about what had happened in the late centuries when she was still young. The only person that she wanted to save was Sasori, but instead it was Gaara. Her grandson is nothing but an outsider from their village. All he ever cared about was himself. He fell into darkness, just like the others who are still trapped inside. In spite of all, Chio is grateful for meeting the best kind of people in her life. Like Naruto, he has a mysterious power, which everyone starts to believe in him. When it comes to Sakura, she is the only person who still keeps her secrets to herself. At least one of them.

"Sakura, Naruto. We're about to leave now," Kakashi called out to them.

"Okay! Let's get going, Sakura!" The blonde-haired ninja said softly as he pulls up the straps of his backpack as he glanced over his right shoulder.

The pink-haired kunoichi looks down on the grave and taps it, reminiscing what Chio had said to her before she gave her life away to the beloved red-haired Kazekage.

 _FLASHBACK:_

 _"Young lady, loving someone who has one personal thing in his mind is not always easy. I just want you to remember that love is not about having those kinds of emotions. But to be able and willing to sacrifice everything for that person. Love is blindness, my dear. Sooner or later, you will realize who is actually there for you and who always stays at your side. Sasuke will not return anytime at this moment and it is best to leave him for now. Do not give up on him yet, Sakura. You are a strong, beautiful kunoichi who is capable of helping others in need and whose lives are in danger. You are always important to everyone, and someone. Please... do yourself a favor. Learn how to love the right way because love is powerful above anything else," Chio concluded as she smiled genuinely at her._

 _Sakura's eyes was glistening into tears happily and said when she hugged her. "Thank you so much."_

 _END OF FLASHBACK_

Back in the present time, the pink-haired kunoichi slides her fingers slowly over the trails of the carved words of Chio. She turns around, walking away, and stops for a moment to look back on her once again. _"Thank you... Lady Chio."_

* * *

 _TO BE CONTINUED..._


	10. Best of Friends

**This chapter will also be short, just like the previous one. So I hope you enjoy this!**

 **Please read & review! :)**

* * *

In front of the main entrance of the hidden sand village, Team Kakashi and Team Gai were standing behind Naruto and Sakura, who were bidding farewells to the Sand Siblings.

"Well. I guess we couldn't be thankful enough for what you guys did out there. You really surprised us," Kankuro said smirking gladly.

"Sakura, Naruto. Thanks again," Temari smiled.

"Anytime," the blonde-haired ninja replied back grinning.

On the other hand, Gaara and Sakura were looking directly into each other's eyes warmly with so much contentment.

"Thank you. Without you, lady Chio and everyone else, I would be gone by now and-" his sentence was cut off when Sakura's arms quickly wrapped around him tightly.

"Don't say it like that... We're so happy that you are alive. Life would be meaningless if it wasn't for lady Chio. You are my best friend, Gaara. That is how much I love you," the pink-haired kunoichi's tears were falling down from her face, crying uncontrollably.

"Hey... I'll be here. I'll always be here, even when we live far away," Gaara said comfortingly and continued on as he let go of her. "Thank you, again."

The pink-haired kunoichi nodded and said smilingly. "You're welcome."

Then, all of a sudden her right wrist was levitating in which the red-haired Kazekage had initiated to rebuild a new sand bracelet around it, much to her surprise.

"This is a new brand. The way it is reconstructed only means that I, as the creator, has a new life being restored. No matter what shape or form it is, you can tell how I'm linked to this bracelet, whereas you, Sakura, can feel a certain kind of emotions that I have now," Gaara explained, blinking his eyes at once pleasantly.

The others stood in awe at the jewelry that the pink-haired kunoichi was currently wearing.

"That is so cool!" Lee's eyes sparkled in delight.

"Wow! That is so pretty and very solid!" Tenten complimented gleefully.

"Yup. That's how he rolls. It's only for the special-" Kankuro got interrupted when Temari nudged her elbow towards him, giving a warning look. He stood quiet and cleared his throat, saying. "For the best of friends."

"Yeah. To friendships and success!" The ponytail-haired kunoichi cheered as the others were clapping.

"See you guys again!" Kankuro waved.

Then, Gaara looked at Naruto while they were all standing in silence until the blonde-haired ninja spoke.

"Heh. I guess this is when you normally shake hands and part ways, but I'm bad at that kind of thing! So..." he brushed the side of his right cheek marks, clumsily back and forth. Then, he noticed that the red-haired Kazekage gestured his right hand forward.

Everyone else was smiling at the friendship that the two jinchurikis have with each other.

The sand partially lifts Naruto's wrist, gently pulling it forward for a handshake with Gaara as well. They were very happy that everything worked out well.

When the Sand siblings started waving goodbye to the leaf squads, Sakura and the others were startled to see how awkwardly, weird Guy and Kakashi were in.

"I'll be much faster than anyone in this race! Yeah! Let's go. Yee pee!" Guy rambled out loudly as he carried Kakashi on his back as they ran in a flash like a lightning bolt.

"Oh dear..." Tenten cringed.

"Neji," Lee demonstrated the same way as his sensei did.

"Absolutely not!" The Hyuga declined harshly.

Naruto and Sakura started laughing at their silliness and they continued to head forward on their journey. They have three days to go back to the hidden leaf village, which they weren't in any rush at all.

"So do you guys have any plans this week or are you guys busy?" Lee asked.

"Yeah. We certainly missed those times, hanging out with you and the other teams," Tenten stated with a beaming look.

"You're right. Let's go somewhere fun and exotic! But where do you think that we should go?" Naruto questioned blankly.

"Hm... That sounds like a good idea. I suppose I don't mind tagging along," Neji nodded.

"What about you, Sakura? What'd you think?" Lee asked smilingly.

"Well, we could go on an adventure trip together. Although, it will be different from what we have gone through on most of our missions. We can go to a new island or something," the pink-haired kunoichi suggested as she placed a finger thoughtfully on the side of her face.

"Oh my gosh! That would be a new different experience for all of us! A vacation, perhaps?!" Tenten squealed in delight.

"Alright! Rock on. I can practice my training there," Naruto collided his fists with enthusiasm.

"Me too! I'll be doing 500 push-ups and 100 kicks," Lee's eyes lit up like fire.

Sakura and Tenten started to giggle at their high motivations.

"Guys. This is a vacation. Not a training, remember?" The brunette kunoichi reminded.

"Yeah. Why not just take a break? You won't know what it's like to have fun as what the youth is like," the pink-haired kunoichi stated wisely.

"On the contrary, I think it's up to them and us, whether we can decide to have fun or resume our training, don't you think? Besides, this is a good opportunity to travel to an island. We have to make sure that everyone is not busy with their heavy schedules," Neji said.

"Yup. So, who's in?" Tenten asked.

"Me!" Sakura, Naruto, and Lee responded in unison.

Without a doubt, they will need to ask for Lady Tsunade's permission once they return back to the hidden leaf village.

* * *

 _TO BE CONTINUED..._


	11. Discovering

**Hey, guys! There are two remaining chapters left for me to publish. So thank you for your time and patience.**

 **Anyways, please read & review! :)**

* * *

Somewhere in the middle of the forest trees lies a mysterious black-cloaked figure with an orange swirly mask he was wearing, informing what appears to be a white Zetsu.

"Alas, it seems we've lost Deidara," he said in a low tone of his voice and continued on when he grabbed a piece of his decapitated hand that has a mouth, sticking its tongue out. "I bet he met his demise from death by bombing, Zetsu. There are probably body parts scattered all over the area. Heh heh..."

"You there, drop my hand right now!" A familiar voice yelled out, revealing to be Deidara approaching them.

"Well, my taste buds do betray me. You're alive!" The mysterious ninja said sarcastically.

"What happened to the jinchuriki?" The white Zetsu asked curiously.

"I have completed my mission... Hmm?" Deidara noted rhetorically.

"A close one though, eh Deidara? But at least you're all right. Or perhaps not..." the mysterious ninja guessed slyly.

"Tobi, even the Buddha loses patience eventually. One more word, and there'll be no doubt about the cause of your death, hmm?" Deidara stated in a warning.

"Ulp! D-death by b-bombing?" Tobi stuttered, pretending to be scared.

"There... That's it," The white Zetsu nodded.

Suddenly, Deidara strangled Tobi with his legs, saying in frustration. "Death by suffocation!"

* * *

 **Meanwhile back in the hidden leaf village...**

"I have already made arrangements for you to be assigned to Team Kakashi. Not only are you and Naruto Uzumaki close in age. But you're both stronger than your peers and your talent with the brush is simply unsurpassed. From this day forward until your mission is completed, you shall be known as Sai," Danzo officially announced while holding his cane.

"Ah... Sai, is it?" The new ninja said smirking secretively.

"When you're in front of me, wipe that fake smile off your face," Danzo scolded strictly.

"Forgive me, sir. But it was mentioned in the texts that the first step toward winning a person's heart is a smile," Sai explained clearly and continued. "I've been practicing, though... I guess I'm still not very good at facial expressions."

* * *

 **Inside the Hokage Tower, a few elders were gathered around to discuss a few issues with Tsunade at hand.**

"Absolutely not!" She disagreed strongly with her eyes narrowed firmly at them.

"But Tsunade, Naruto is no ordinary child. He is a jinchuriki," the elderly man said truthfully, then further describe. "Normally, we would never even send him outside the village and keep him under surveillance at all times. So we're already offering you a compromise."

"I'm in favor of using the four-man cell model for his team. However, you cannot impose any more restrictions on Naruto! So long as Naruto remains in one place, all of the people in the leaf village is in danger. Sooner or later, the Akatsuki will come after him and it'll be the sand village incident all over again. Though, a moving target is hardest to hit, which is why we must keep Naruto in the field as long as often as possible," Tsunade said rightfully.

They all know that the blonde-haired ninja has a talent and will be a great asset to their village. The fifth Hokage tries to argue with the elders based on how much Naruto has gone through in his life. Because of how much she believes in him, there was nothing to worry about what the future outcomes would be.

"As you wish, then a compromise it is... To honor your faith in him, Naruto shall be allowed to remain on active duty. However, we shall select the additional shinobi who are to join Team Kakashi," the elderly man required with a tired sigh.

"Done," Tsunade replied in agreement.

"Enter! Danzo," the elderly woman called out.

The old crippled man had entered on the door, much to Tsunade's surprise.

"If you're here, then that must mean one of the new team members is from the foundation of the Black Ops," she said in a fact. More likely, she was suspicious about the new ninja named Sai.

Once Sakura and Naruto will find out who their new teammate is, they certainly won't be happy about the replacement they arranged for their dear friend, Sasuke.

* * *

 _TO BE CONTINUED..._


	12. Konoha 11's Day Out

**I wrote this as an extra part of this story where the leaf squad traveled to a mysterious island. This will only be a preview on the next chapter of GaaSaku story.**

 **Anyways, please enjoy reading & reviewing!**

* * *

The following week was a fresh start for everyone around the leaf village. Getting back to their usual daily routine made them have a good motivation to finish what they had already started. They took a few minutes to take a break, and sometimes, they took the longest. Although, life wasn't always that perfect and easy for the youngsters like Sakura and the others. They have already gotten a permission from lady Tsunade to travel to an island that they are about to discover.

As they all gathered in the main entrance, the fifth Hokage and the rest of the jounin were now informing the instructors to ensure the safety of their teammates.

"I hope you don't get lost on the way there," she informed firmly.

"Oh, don't worry, lady Tsunade. We will make sure that nothing can cause any harm to these kids," Asuma said smoothly while clenching his teeth on the toothpick.

"Yup. It's a vacation," Guy pointed out.

"But still, you need to be careful. Remember as I've told you the other day, right?" Tsunade asked with assurance.

Kakashi and the others nodded for an answer.

"Good. As always, have a safe trip and you have a week to return here because I have several missions for you to be assigned," she reminded.

"No problem," Kurenai replied.

"We will miss you, Granny. See you on the other side-" Naruto grinned sheepishly until Sakura punched him on the head.

"Jeez. It's only going to be for a week, you idiot," she muttered in irritation.

Everyone else chuckled at that and waited for a few minutes to say a few words to each other.

"Man, I can't believe this. This is going to be so much fun!" Choji bumped his fist up in the air.

"Oh yeah! Tell me about it! I'm all hyped up!" Kiba puts his arms behind his head, whereas Akamaru barked in agreement.

"Damn. The four of us will be having a girls' get together kind of thing once we get there. Wouldn't you want that?" Tenten asked excitingly.

"Yes! And we will also be swimming at the beach, getting our bodies tanned, and playing volleyball," Ino said dreamily.

"What about food?" Hinata stammered in a question.

"Don't worry, I'm sure the guys will do it for us. After all, we are only girls," Ino stated haughtily.

"Hm. Well, we have to figure it out because it has to be fair for everyone," Sakura said correctly.

On the other hand, the boys were huddled in a circle where they started talking about a few things among themselves.

"So who's bringing bottles of wine, beer, alco-" Kiba started to ask, but got interrupted quickly.

"Absolutely not. There is no way we can bring those over there," Shino declined and continued. "Besides, nobody wants to get drunk."

"Yeah, don't you think, Lee?" Neji asked with a smirk.

"Oh come on. I'm not that super drunk. I swear," Lee defended himself.

"Sure, you might be 'Drunken Fist' and all that shit," Kiba laughed hysterically.

"Who knew," Shikamaru closed his eyes for a moment with a smirk and continued. "Like what Tsunade said, we have to be careful with our surroundings."

"Yup yup. Shika here is right," Choji nodded as he started to munch hastily on one of the potato chips he just brought.

"Ugh. Gee, can't you even take a break from eating those junk?" Ino slightly remarked distastefully.

"Let's not provoke him, guys," Guy approached them and patted on Lee's shoulder, asking. "Are you all ready to go?"

"Yeah!" The leaf squad shouted in harmony.

"This is going to be so thrilling!" Sakura beamed happily.

"Let's get going," Kakashi noted.

"See you soon, lady Tsunade and everyone!" Naruto exclaimed and waved goodbye as they did the same thing.

Then, the rest of the teams began to part their ways from the village as soon as possible while it was bright and sunny all day long.

On the contrary, they didn't even noticed that someone else was following them. But who could it be under the dark shadows of the trees and even behind the wooden logs?

One thing for sure is that the mysterious person is actually the other half. Her wicked smile brings a few more unknown events of misfortunes and most likely, a destruction, upon those who are eventually going to encounter.

* * *

 _TO BE CONTINUED..._


	13. The Anonymous Culprit

**Again, this is a very short chapter where Sakura and the others are going to discover more next time. Don't forget to comment down below if you have any questions or anything you would like to say regards to the stories I've written.**

 **Anyways, please read & review!**

* * *

Inside the hidden sand cave lies the three companions having a conversation about what they are about to execute a plan.

"Well. I guess she's not fully aware of my presence, does she? That's too bad. I have no other choice, but to make her notice me," the mysterious girl said giggling evilly.

"What do you think that we should do, then?" The white Zetsu asked emotionless.

"Bomb explosions. I have tons of clay because art is beauty, hmm," Deidara quoted.

The girl rolled her eyes and look at the two of them sternly, saying. "Ugh. Get a grip, would you? It's time for us to show the real us."

"Wow. Don't you think they will get all confuse when the rest of the leaf squad know that you are-" The white Zetsu got cut off when the girl shushed him out.

"Quiet. Trust me, it will be a perfect time to give them so many nice little treats and as for Sakura, she'll never know what hit her. She will finally be able to breathe in a 'normal' air once it's completely activated," the girl said maliciously with a murder intent look.

"You really have fallen into a deep shit. But hmm, I don't care if we start throwing bombs at people or poison them, it will be fun, yeah?" Deidara ranted coolly.

"Oh well. I'll just inform master about this. I'm certain he will be pleased by this," the white Zetsu said grinning.

"Don't flatter yourself. He will be satisfied once they are all dead, hmm," Deidara nodded with his eyes closed in agreement.

"Not to worry. I'm just so annoyed by this pink-haired bitch that one day, she will lose everything. Because when that time comes, I will proudly destroy Sakura and take her place. Her whole damn life," the girl declared sharply with a bold statement and chuckled.

Deidara and the white-Zetsu continued to discuss the plan with her. There was no uncertainty that things will not go wrong, but the truth of the matter, it is only just the start of trouble.

* * *

 _TO BE CONTINUED..._


	14. To Be Continued

Hey, guys! I just want to say thank you so much for reading this story and encouraging me to write as several GaaSaku stories there is sometime in the future. I know the three completed stories are mostly based on the Naruto manga. Yes, I did put every disclaimer before you guys started reading them. But I just wanted to get a few ideas from that original series in order for me to grow and expand my imagination. However, I will most likely be writing the new ones in my own way because I do not want to rely so much on the manga I've kept reading lately. Therefore, I will be making several plot twists and mysterious problems to solve.

Anyways, the next GaaSaku story will be published next year! You can follow me on Instagram **LoveAnime5891** for the latest updates. Thank you and see you all next year! :)


End file.
